What happens when the person you expected to grow old with walks away?
How do you grieve a life that will never happen? How do you stop loving someone who has stopped choosing you? And how do you find yourself again after spending years building a life around another person?
Ode to the Broken Seashell: Poems to Heal a Broken Heart is an intimate, deeply moving collection of poetry about heartbreak, betrayal, grief, and the quiet courage it takes to begin again.
Written from the perspective of a woman confronting the unexpected end of a marriage in midlife, these poems explore the emotions that are often hardest to express: the anger that follows abandonment, the loneliness of an empty bed, the promises that linger long after someone leaves, and the painful realization that the future you imagined may never come.
But this is not only a book about losing love.
It is also a book about finding the woman who was there all along.
Through three emotional journeys, The Breaking, The Mending, and The Opening, Valeria Brontë takes readers from the rawness of heartbreak toward self-discovery, independence, and the unexpected possibility of love again.
Along the way, readers will discover:
The Breaking: Poems that give voice to grief, betrayal, anger, and the loss of a shared future.
The Mending: Reflections on reclaiming your identity, learning to stand alone, and discovering that choosing yourself is not the same as giving up on love.
The Opening: A gentle awakening to hope, desire, connection, and the realization that a broken heart can still be capable of extraordinary love.
Accompanied by evocative classical artwork and gentle reflection prompts, this collection offers a quiet space to feel, remember, grieve, and rediscover yourself.
Whether you are navigating divorce, healing from a breakup, grieving a lost relationship, or simply learning how to begin again, these poems remind you that you are not alone.
You may have lost the future you imagined. But you have not lost the possibility of a beautiful life.
Because a broken heart is still a heart capable of love.
