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...