I started writing a few years ago. I couldn’t understand why, when to the outside world I had an exciting and fulfilling life, I was unhappy and depressed… and then I discovered I could pick up my pen, and write it all down, and feel better again.

I entered a handful of poetry competitions and got placed first in two and runner-up in another, and that gave me the encouragement to carry on writing. This poem was my first competition entry, and my first winner, and it was in response to a call for poems about break ups:

COLD FEET

Gather round me ladies
I’ve got a tale to tell
Of love, marriage and abuse
Make sure you listen well!

Don’t ignore your friends
If they say he isn’t good
My friends they tried to warn me
But I never understood

If you get those cold feet
On your wedding day
Run for the hills young lady
Just leg it far away

If he tries to fix you
To correct your dreadful flaw
There’s only one good option
Show that man the door

If he tries to punch you
Don’t listen to his lies
There’s no excuse for violence
It’s time for your goodbyes

If he holds the purse strings
That really isn’t right
Keep some money of your own
For the dreaded legal fight

I know that you won’t listen
We women never do
But after what I’ve been through
I would if I were you!

I found that when I shared my writing it made me feel better still. I asked my brother to read my poems, but as he is visually impaired he found it difficult. So I read them to him. And he said they made more sense out loud. And after that I decided that I wanted to perform them. I find that if I can take something bad that happened and make it into a poem or a painting, then I have created a positive out of a negative. And I like doing that.