Our Story

    On the afternoon of Thursday, April 2, 2015, at the end of a 7-month battle with leukemia, Troy Salisbury looked on as his wife, Mandie, passed away. Six days later, during the evening after her funeral, Troy wrote his first poem, beginning to process the intense grief and immense sense of loss he was suffering.
     In the coming weeks and months, Troy continued to write poems, finding the process cathartic and therapeutic. Additionally, he joined an online widows and widowers support group, where he shared his poems with others, touching their hearts as they too navigated the deep and often turbulent waters of grief after losing a spouse.
     As time passed and his heart lightened, Troy continued to write, adding spiritual, scriptural, and inspirational themes. He found that as he shared his poems online, hundreds, and eventually thousands of people enjoyed his work and encouraged him to write more and more.
     In the midst of Troy's journey of discovering his inner writer, he met his current wife, Keri, who lost her husband John to a heart attack, almost exactly a year after Troy said goodbye to Mandie. Keri, too, had joined the same online widows and widowers group, looking to connect with others who could help her make sense of her new world of grief and sorrow. The very first post she saw was one of Troy's poems, and she felt it was just what she needed to hear. In time, she reached out to Troy for friendship and a listening ear, and, as they say, the rest is history.
     Troy found that as he wrote, he sometimes received requests to write about certain topics and for individual situations. With those poems also being warmly welcomed and received, Troy recognized he could write for anyone. Hence, Poetic Touches was born.
     Now, it's your turn to let Troy write for you. Troy will personally collaborate with you to craft the perfect gift, merging your vision for a poem with his words, and if you wish, combining it all together beautifully with a picture of your choosing. Let Troy, and Poetic Touches, help you touch the heart of someone you love and care about, with a gift they'll remember and treasure forever.