To stroll around the sunlit gallery, reading the poems and other expressions of anguish, pain and sorrow, seeing the lines of T-shirts with their poignant messages, and noting the symbolic bowl of tears brings home the issue of physical abuse and violence against women and children in a very sobering way.

So touching is the current exhibition, entitled Express Yourself through Poetry and Art and mounted by the Women's Resource Centre of Bermuda, that many are moved to tears. Small wonder, then, that boxes of tissues are strategically placed around the gallery.

While the issue of assaults against women in all its forms is no longer swept under the carpet, and more women are taking the initiative to move away from abusive environments, there is still a long way to go, both in terms of ending the cycle of abuse and galvanising public reaction to bring about change.

Shadow Minister of Health and the Family Services Mrs. Kim Young, for whom domestic violence has long been a primary concern, and who visited the exhibition this week, pays tribute to the work of the Women's Resource Centre, and expresses gratitude that the organisation has taken such a positive step to focus attention on such a grave social issue.

"They have done an excellent job in the education and support of the victims, otherwise they would never have come to this point. Before, people wouldn't talk about it,'' she says.

"The exhibition is both educational and creates more awareness, which is what we want and need. From it, people can see that if others can get out of terrible situations, they too can make it. It also helps to enlighten people who don't realise that they are in abusive relationships.'' Certainly, no-one visiting the exhibition can fail to be struck by the depths to which abusers will go to violate their partners, or yet the damage that domestic violence and rape do not only to the victims but children who live in such households.

The immature hand of one young victim writes on a T-shirt: "I wish my mom would make my dad stop hitting and yelling,'' while another child pleads: "Please love me, lead me, respect me, feed me. Thank you,'' and the sense of helplessness in a third child's mind is expressed as, "I wish I could protect my mom.'' T-shirts, placed by the Physical Abuse Centre, record the tragic murders of women, babies and children -- Ramir Nadir, five months old; Saed Young five and one half months old; Lynae Brown five years old, D'Shun Dill two years old, Cannice White ten months old, and Rebecca Middleton, to name a few. Then there is the reminder that "since 1979 there has been the murder of a woman or child every year in Bermuda''.

To those who think that saying "I love you'' excuses all, a T-shirt urges the viewer to think again. In conjunction with a broken heart, the question is begged: "What's love got to do with it? Love shouldn't hurt.'' Poems, printed starkly without illustration in most cases, bring home the awfulness of so many lives so graphically that at times it is hard to comprehend how victims survive at all.

Marcia Burns has written a collection of poems. One, entitled "Where do I go from here?,'' traces with adjectives a long, sad path of destruction before the word `salvation' appears, followed by words indicating a grasped opportunity to re-build amid mixed emotions.

"New creation, new love, got joy, still got fears ... it's clean-up time.

Got real peace.'' "Fatherless Child'' is an ode to someone's pain over an absentee father, while "Rebellion'' tells of a parent's distress in watching a 14-year-old leave home "to chase what you feel is right, but couldn't be further from the truth''.

While most are written anonymously, what makes some sign their name? Is it courage? Perhaps, but in Dionne Tuzo's case, her poems are a based on composite knowledge of many harrowing experiences gained through observing friends who have suffered.

"I have transferred all of their feelings and what they went through. It was through the Women's Resource Centre that they were able to break free,'' she explains.

"I Won't Die'' is a defiant message to an abusive partner saying that, despite everything, the subject will live on "because of that still small voice that says I am not alone, and that I don't need a man like you to make my house a home, for if I stayed I would die.'' Some get near identity with initials or pen names. RMR, for example, chronicles, very briefly, walking way from abuse. "I did it for the kids and me,'' he or she writes. "I turned my life around.'' A drawing of a child accompanies the sad words, "You say you love me, yet you cannot see, if you abuse my mom, you abuse me.'' A series of black and white photographs by Samantha Crew, on the other hand, captures the innocence of childhood, perhaps serving as a reminder that all children should lead violence-free lives.

Gallery volunteer Mrs. Ann Crew, like shadow minister Mrs. Young, is among many who praise the way the exhibition's theme is handled.

"I think it has been very tastefully done,'' she says. "It sends shivers right down my spine. The people involved in writing on the T-shirts and the poetry are pouring out their hearts. They are helping themselves by doing so, but they are also doing it to help others. It has given them strength and people must realise this.'' Mrs. Crew has watched with interest the reactions of those who visit the gallery, and says most leave deeply moved.

"People are definitely being affected by it; they're not just walking away, they have been very quiet,'' she says.

Stories from the dark side Children, in particular, have been discussing the exhibits with their mothers, while others have asked, "Does this really happen?'' "It is making children aware that nasty things happen to their peers, and they have been affected by it,'' Mrs. Crew says.

For one visitor, a victim of extensive physical and sexual abuse in childhood, the realities behind the exhibition were all too vividly recalled, and it was with some difficulty that she sought to explain the background to such misery.

"Not all sex and incest is done through alcohol and drugs,'' she explained.

"It can be in any family, and the abuse can come from highly religious people who hide behind an outward appearance of being very kind and gracious Christians, as well as close relatives.

"When someone has been abused, the abuser will continue to abuse other people, and the abused person has to be very strong to bring these people out into the open. That can be very difficult, because every time they talk about the abuser they are reliving the abuse and feeling every single pain.'' She pointed out that abuse can start in infancy, and while at least one parent might know about it, they do nothing to stop it, thus compounding the child's pain and suffering.

"The scars last for your whole life,'' the visitor said. "You can come to terms with it and live your life, but you never truly get over it.'' Having survived her own, long history of abuse, the woman claimed she could immediately identify an abused child by the dead expression in its eyes.

"Your eyes are your soul, you can actually see the hurt in them. It is quite amazing,'' she said.

The exhibition, located in the Bermuda Society of Arts gallery on the upper level of City Hall, ends today. Admission is free. After it closes, the Women's Resource Centre plans raise to funds for its work by compiling the written pieces in a book for sale.