Life Poetry
Meeting the beauty of life in times of sorrow
Life’s Poetry is part memoir, part soulful exploration of the landscape of grief. Part prose and part poetry.
For the past 19 years I have been tending to my own grief in all the ways. I have devoted myself to my grief - this book is a reflection of that. It’s also a transition point for me. My grief will be forever present, I speak about this in the book, and now it’s time for something different. For me to hold others in their grief, for me to tend to the grief of the world, to use everything that I’ve learned, been through, and overcome for the collective, for all of us.
Now, I can barely believe it’s here. I started working on this book in earnest in 2021 but it was dreaming through me long before that. I think in fact from the moment I sat down and wrote the notes of what it was to see my mum die, not long after her death - where I detailed her medication, the things she said to me, how I felt - I couldn’t find those notes all these years later, but this was when this book started.
My hope for this book is that you’ll find something in here for you, not everything, I think that could be impossible - but something.
Life’s Poetry will be published on Tuesday 14th July 2026.
You can pre-order your copy today.
The book is filtering its way through to retailers. This link will take you to Waterstones in the UK. I’ll be updating this page as and when more retailers will become available.
Life’s Poetry is available worldwide - just search for the book and you’ll find it.
The thin veil of life
The breath
The heartbeat
The silence
Then nothing
Gone
Nicola Duffell
Meeting the beauty of life
Within Life’s Poetry, Nicola invites you to come to the intimacy of grief, to no longer turn away from the very thing that can bring you closer to life.
Through her own experiences Nicola takes you on a journey so that you may come to know beauty amongst the devastation, amongst the heartbreak and the pain.
We’re living in times where life is punctuated by grief, where a day may not go by where grief doesn’t touch us in some way. Where our grief is no longer just personal, but collective. Human to human, human to earth, and animal kin, we are all grieving.
This is a book of life, love, death and grief. It’s about how even grief can be ordinary, that we may just have forgotten this essential nature of our lives.
With Gratitude
I say this in my book more fully and hopefully more beautifully than I do here, but I want this acknowledgment here too.
I couldn’t have written this book without the support of those around me. Nicola Humber my publisher from the Unbound Press. Every single one of my dear and beautiful friends who support each and every day. My family, my husband, my Dad, my sister, my children. The teachers who have supported me along with the way - Annalisa Blake, Andrea Lucas, Shelley Bloom, Lindsay Wagstaff, Alexandre Jodun, Erin Geesaman Rabke, Carl Rabke. With special thanks to Francis Weller, this book is in praise of his work, and brings my own to life. And Holly Truhlar for teaching me the ways of politicised grief tending. To Jim, for always helping me bring everything to life. To every single one of you who have supported me on my journey, oh I wish I could name you all! My clients, my colleagues along the way, even those of you I went to school with who continue to support me. All of you.
And of course my beloved Mum, no longer here in human form, but who continues to support me.
Thank you.
Life’s Poetry in real life
Life’s Poetry is an ecosystem and whilst I was writing this book, Life’s Poetry came to life by way of an experience, a tending. If you want to experience Life’s Poetry, if you want to journey together in life, love and grief - you can join us - we begin in October 2026.