I first put pen to paper I did not realise I was writing poetry they were just words that I'd held inside and needed to release. I wrote the first one in pencil so I could rub it out but as I started the words seem to leap out none stop on to the page. Reading them back the next morning I was surprised because it was as if they had been written by somebody else's telling my story I found it all a bit unreal. My first poem came about after leaving home in secret with my children after many years of living with a very controlling and often angry man. Looking back I realise it was harder staying than finding the courage to leave. I now realise this courage is within all of us we just need to believe in ourselves. The poems are a mixture of my life the thing I've experiences and how love, loss and feelings affect me wrong or right. Though out this time Harry my dog was there with me always please to see me when coming home, often inspiring me on our walks and befriending me at lonely time thanks old friend