Category Archives: Poetry

Positive After Mental Illness

Wide awake and positive
Bring on my day
I don’t need sunshine
To keep the storm at bay

The worlds my oyster
I’ve got a new day to breathe
I’ll embrace lifes riches
In me I’ll believe

I’ll greet each and every day
Thinking I too have survived
Reflect of the miracle that I am
Thinking it’s good to be alive

‘Alive’

‘Alive’

by Daniel Hunter

 

With good mental health I have got up at a reasonable hour.

left my bedroom. talked to my family faced the world With good mental health I have got on a bus gone to the shops gone swimming and to the cinema

With good mental health I have Stood on my two feet Lived in my own place.

Made nice friends. Made the right choices.

With good mental health I have completed diplomas joined groups and clubs worked in a charity shop secured paid work

With good mental health I have looked out for others the dad that did so much for me the friend that supported me and found a fragile peace

With good mental health I have quietened the voices in my head soothed the paranoia eased the anxiety stilled a restless mind. With good mental health I have accepted my limitations overcome expectations found my path And myself With good mental health I have woken from my death sleep. And finally come ALIVE.

anti-mask

…prayed for the spirit to make amends…

then in the silences,we spoke

of you, the loved and lovely ones

who’d known the heights

through depths unsounded

and knowing strength,

in weakness foundered;

who knew yourselves

through a world unbounded.

You knew of life in deathly tones:

-how in resilience, you broke

the anti-mask that never ends…

stasis

we

calm

no word

together

in no place

filling in a space

that time would jump

no word about the world

that talks about the weather

in the cafe by the rubbish dump

a serentan refuge where we’re curled

breathes softly in the ripples of the sea

I am sure you’d start to think this is absurd

and I am quite convinced we never did do any harm

but then you’d say that this doesn’t have to come from me

Awakening

Awakening I can carry a thought through thick and thin.

Stop by choice, not only when falling.

Hear my heart beat to see new beauty.

Speak out, that I may be more than dusty darkness or a gap between others.

Now I hold my inner light; Lift it high and bring myself outward.

I carry treasure revealed in unexpected places.

Glitters and gold? Yes, I have plenty; Both the stars, (which always hung in the night sky) and the sun, (which persisted in rising, though I would rather sleep).

Yes, I have reason to move forward. I have life within and life around I have colour, texture, and the ground is not so steep now.

Well Spring

Well Spring Source of my life, spring upward! Refresh my soul, bring colour! Deep, deep, is the quarry of my life, Harsh are the hard rocks;

 

They face my every move. But fear breaks in the face of love and waters bring joy…

 

Bring forward hope, hope for my living. Beyond the breakage I see light.

Daylight after rain – BOOK SELECTION

I’m splashing in the puddles the air is so clean – is the air always this clean? the other people don’t seem so excited but this is my first day ever of splashing in the puddles, in the daylight after rain.

 

 

John collects a handmade hardback book

He will be presented with this at the House of Lords on the 1st May 2013

 

Congratulations from all of us at !!

wrethinkyourmind logo

 

His work will feature in The Yellow Book going nationwide

 

alt

Selected Poetry Entries for The Yellow Book please click the titles to view:

 

 

  1. I Feel Life – Ella Zellaby – Rochester Kent
  2. This World – Stephanie Rose – Bo’ness Scotland
  3. Lift Your Voice – David Holloway – Bedford
  4. Mirror – Saiqa Parveen – Halifax
  5. With Good Mental Health – Anne Broadbent – West Yorkshire
  6. Meadering – Peter McGrath – Essex
  7. Senses – Jade Tullet – Berkshire
  8. The Wren – Ian Curtress – Cheltenham
  9. Recovery – Lesley Burt – Dorset
  10. A Home in my Head – Karen Mason – Surrey
  11. Freedom is Ours – Gemma Rose – East Sussex
  12. Beauty – Debee Ebeneezer – Nottingham
  13. It is Ok – Suzanne Bate – Liverpool
  14. Happiness is Gratitude – Lisa Barry – Rhondda Cynon Taft
  15. I’ve Changed – Louise Gillett – Christchurch Dorset
  16. Sunny Side Up – Karim Harvey – London
  17. Proud to be me – Denise Claxton – Essex
  18. Daylight after Rain – John Campbell – London
  19. I Can See The Colour and I Can Feel The Sun – Elizabeth Aldous – Luton
  20. Free To Be Me – Diana Hayes – Abergavenny
  21. Bus Journey – Safoora Masood – Halifax
  22. There Once Was a Young Girl From Wales – Katy Young – Flintshire
  23. See the Flowers Beneath Your Feet – Anonymous
  24. I Know – Kauser Parveen – Halifax

 

Congratulations from all of us at !!

wrethinkyourmind logo

 

Hang

hey just to hang when something is said, not to run in the cave and delve and check instead to hang, chill, wait until maybe my NT stuff will give something back, maybe not I find myself laughing, all the time.

I’m happy. I might be in this game.