About

welcome to Connected and Useful

Starting in 2018, Joel began compiling encouraging poetry, music and art as well as other writing at this site and called it Connected and Useful.  Over 2,000 poems and songs later, Joel is into his sixth year of writing, posting and collaborating with other artists to reach a hurting world with special and timely words of encouragement.  If this is your first time here, welcome!  Please explore our poetry by topic and check out our resources page to purchase books or stream music that will help you on your journey in life!  

photo by Sophia Howard

Some of Joel's favorite topics to write about are prayer, God as our Father, and waiting. Joel resides in New Jersey, USA with his wife and three children. He has either authored or edited 10 books of poetry to date which are all available at his Amazon author page. In addition to writing poetry, Joel has released five full-length music albums as a songwriter and worship leader; “Here’s to the Journey“ (2010), “Shepherd Songs“ (2021), "Here we come" (2023), "The Psalms, Vol. 1" (2023) and "Brave Heart Brave Soul" (2023) which are each available wherever online music is sold or streamed. You may follow Joel at facebook.com/joelhowardauthor and at youtube.com/@joelhowardmusic to stay more connected and you can find his complete works archived and updated regularly here at connectedanduseful.com. To contact Joel or to sign up for our email list and receive updates and weekly encouragement, please write connectedanduseful (at) gmail (dot) com or use the contact form on our home page.