You may or may not know this about me already, but aside from being a mental health advocate, I am also a very creative person. My biggest passion in life is theatre, and I adore all forms of creativity from writing poetry to banging pots and pans together to make a beat. I think that my passion for advocacy and my creativity go perfectly hand in hand, as does creativity and mental health recovery. So I thought today I’d try something a little different and post one of my poems that relates to my mental health journey. I only write poetry when I’m feeling an emotion intensely – whatever that may be. I find it the perfect form of writing for expressing deep and complex emotions or experiences. So here’s a little piece of my journey that I wrote about a year ago; a look into my heart. I hope you like it, please do let me know in the comments. Sending love and support to you all today!
22:47 – Letters to Friends
I have mismatched smiles
And unsettled expressions
I have tears that come unwarranted
-for most-
But perfectly
For me,
Though sometimes I may pretend they don’t
Till even I forget my tears are full of worth,
And most dangerous of masks
Are the ones we do not realise we wear.
So when your breath catches
Just above the safe tide mark,
When your ears hear the words
They want
So your mind can steal you
For your fears,
When everything is right, balanced in unbalanced juxtaposition, when it is perfect,
And so then it is wrong,
And when all you yearn for is to rest,
But all you can do is run,
How then do you tell them you are grateful?
How do you show
When you can’t feel,
And words will do no justice, of course they won’t, because the crooked smiles and the disorganised tone of voice will give away the
Fear?
Is it fear?
Or is it acceptance? That you are not, and cannot, but you belong in the silence between them.
Maybe you don’t. Maybe you can’t tell them.
Maybe it’s enough
That you know
And that you be
As you are
Until what you are is something new,
And you can glance at what was,
Content.
Our Happy Notes 