bella cox
Call me when you’re in bed
where you’re alone and free to moan – go on –
bringing mine to the surface with yours
on the phone
– louder – our breath catching
– slower – carried on sound and ocean
waves – Sarah – our fingers stroking where
we wish to touch each other – harder – your
voice like sweet nectar crying out
I shiver
– good girl –
has it really been – one more –
I could do this for – miles apart but
connected by – breathe– stolen whispers
An internationally acclaimed artist, Bella Cox (she/her) is a British Spanish writer, poet, and performer whose poetry centres around relationships and how personal identity influences politics and ways of loving one another. While her proudly queer, feminist, relationship-fuelled work navigates her own identity, her multicultural upbringing has influenced work that explores the notions of belonging, home, and self-empowerment, making art that reclaims the body as the first home and embraces sensitivities and neurodivergence as tools for self-liberation. Often including a loop pedal in her performances to create layered vocal soundscapes underscoring her poetry, her work has been described as ‘captivating,’ ‘passionate’, and ‘cleverly thought-out’.
Her debut poetry pamphlet; Sikiliza was published with Flipped Eye in 2023. She has performed and shared work at events such as TEDx Pretoria, Sköll World Forum, Bi Pride UK, and the Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival, among many others. Her work has also appeared in numerous anthologies, and she has been commissioned to write for institutions such as the Barbican Centre, HSBC UK, Time Out London and others, as well as Westminster Abbey where she was the Poet in Residence for 2023 and 2025. Bella’s performance of Sikiliza was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for best single poem performed
in 2025.