Bare With Me

By Leah Bell

A collection of poems and songs written over a three year period after leaving her abusive marriage, these pieces chronicle a journey from confusion and despair through honesty and acceptance to a place of healing and hope. They are a testament to the power of creativity in the healing process and bear witness to the fact that with the right support, the right outlets and a significant amount of time and space, even the most broken things can heal.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781447721413

Book preview

Acknowledgements

This collection would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of some exceptional people:

Ruth and Sue - thanks for the encouragement to write things down, the permission to be broken, the unfailing belief.  You are both awesome and inspiring women and I am grateful for your wise counsel and friendship.

Liv, Sam and Riley - thanks for being the best team I could wish for, the best friends I could want and the best inspiration I could ever have.

Kent - thanks for being my happily ever after.

Introduction

On a sunny April day in 2020, with the world enduring the enforced stillness of lockdown, I stood in my garden in the Northumberland countryside, stunned, as a beautiful and perfect looking wagtail that I had just watched fly around the willow tree, dropped from the sky in front of me and lay dead at my feet.  I knelt on the ground and gently picked it up.  I examined it carefully and could find no obvious injury or fault with it.  Nothing that could be fixed or healed or put back together.  It had just died.

I didn’t realise it at the time, but that was the moment that this book was born.  The moment when that tiny, perfect little bird taught me that