Today I understand that sometimes couples get what they need from one another and then move on," says January Gill O'Neil. "I wouldn’t be the woman, mother, and writer that I am today without those experiences. And I would not have made it through the divorce without poetry."

She is director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, and assistant professor of English at Salem State University.

At 3 Good Books, she shares the books that helped her "get through the most difficult time in my life."