True Words from the Heart

A lifetime of love, loss, family memories, and mother wisdom, told through honest poems and reflections.

Some books are written to be admired. True Words From the Heart was written to be felt. Joanne M. Kelly sat down and wrote what actually happened to her in verse and called it a mother memoir because that is exactly what it is. The moments, the choices, the relationships, and the truths nobody usually says out loud.

She writes about being a child, being a friend, going to school, getting married, becoming a mother, losing people, healing anyway, keeping her faith, growing older, and somehow finding new beginnings when she least expected them. None of it is dressed up for an audience. This is a woman handing you her actual life with no filter, only courage, love, and honesty.

What you get is encouraging poetry alongside poems about family and heartfelt reflections that catch you off guard because they say the things you have been feeling but never had words for. Growing older. Looking back. Trying to understand the people who raised you or the people you raised.

Inside, you'll find:

• Family memories from childhood, school years, marriage, and motherhood

• Motherhood poems that do not shy away from love, distance, strength, or the messy parts of family life

• Honest reflections on aging gracefully, the choices we make, and how we hold ourselves together

• Gentle, unguarded words on grief and healing, widowhood, faith, and finding peace again

• Spiritual poetry and life lessons earned through love, loss, and hope

If poetry books for women speak to you, if you have searched for healing poetry books for women on a difficult night, or if reflective life writing and books about aging gracefully for women feel like home, you will find a friend in these pages.

This one's for the mothers, the daughters, the widows, the women sitting with their own memories, and anyone who still believes their family's story is worth telling.

True Words From the Heart is not just a poetry collection. It is the story of my family, my heart, and everything I have learned from living, loving, losing, and beginning again.