TRIGGER WARNING!
This website contains poetry and true stories about trauma, personality disorders, suicidal thoughts, self-harming, depression and other significant mental health issues, as well as personal stories of emotional neglect and physical and sexual abuse, which some people might find disturbing.
Poetry for Mental Health
Supporting people with mental health challenges by motivating and inspiring them to write poetry.
"Poetry for Mental Health was formed at the outbreak of Covid; helping people cope mentally by inspiring them to write poetry. Five years, five books, hundreds of poets, and thousands of pieces of poetry later, we are still inspiring people to write poetry for positive mental health! With around 1400 visitors now each and every month, Poetry for Mental Health is now probably the largest and most visited website for poetry and mental health on the net!"
PLEASE DONATE - Poetry for Mental Health is run voluntarily. It receives no funding or grants so please donate just £10.00 (GBP) / $15.00 (USD) to help us continue support others by promoting and publishing poetry for mental health. Press the DONATE button for £10.00 (GBP), or the PayPal button for a larger amount.
Thank you!
ROBIN BARRATT
Founder POETRY FOR MENTAL HEALTH
"No matter what your age, background and experience, culture or identity; whether an established writer with many published titles to your credit, or an aspiring poet who has never written a word of poetry in your life, our philosophy here is to embrace, welcome and support everyone, everywhere suffering from mental health challenges, and help you cope through words and poetry ...
Get writing!"
NOTE: We publish mental health poetry from around the world, and for a number contributors to this website, English is not their first language. Unlike some other platforms, we don't heavily edit a poet's own work (if we did, it would then not be their own work!), so please focus on a poet's messages and meanings, and not necessarily on any grammatical mistakes or translated imperfections that may arise within their contribution.
Today's Featured Poetry
06th November, 2024.
EXPERIENCES
By Simon Drake
I want to pull the knife out
Relieve the horrendous pain
Petrified I might not survive
My heart won't take the strain
For too long have I suffered
Unnoticed in screaming silence
Fingers pressed tightly to my lips
A unique pain compliance
Hurtful Experiences scarred me
Cutting me deeply to the quick
Pressure won't stop the bleeding
Or make the stitches stick
Never able to control my triggers
Destined to always be burned
An eternity of hurtful lessons
Attended but I never learned
ABOUT THE POEM: "This is how I felt at many times throughout my life continuing to suffer from painful experiences that raised their ugly heads when I least expect it."
More Featured Poetry ...
On the themes of mental health, from poets around the world.
Poetry by: Simon Drake, Roo Newsome, Sherri Levine, Kathleen Chamberlin, Tandra Mishra, Caroline Berry, Angela Masciale, Chris Stokes, Reno Mcgreggor Connelly, Vatsala Radhakeesoon, Martin Embree, Dan Healy, Tadgh Quill-Manley, Reuben Scott, Paulette Hampton, Dr Sabrina Rubin, Bella Hope Smith, Lindsay Walter, Dale "Coyote" Johnson, Alexander A. Henning, Emma Welch, Sophie Squires, Chris McClelland, Sasha Irwin, Faiqa Ali Chughtai, Hari Berrow, Victoria Fitzgerald, Andrea Mitchell, , Mohammed Ali, Chad Boucher, Zack Benz, Jordan Claeys, Nicole Crossno, Valentina Fulginiti, Ethan Boyd, Heidi Hildeman, Oscar Lozano, Addie Suter, Dionne Risley, David M White, PhD, Melissa W. Sorgi, Kyra Merryman, Riley M. Frank, Hilary Canto, Amelia May Hart, Reese, Anneli Knight, Keila Cruz, Bhagvati Patel, Amber Roeder, Cynthia Foss, April Bulmer, Chelsea Garcia, Trish Lundy, Divya Paliwal, Jeanette Stephenson. Luke Preston, Autumn Johnson, Amy Harris, Braxsen Sindelar, Kristen Moody, Sindy Stern, Sam Hendrian, Deby Cedars, Kiran Harrar, William Gray , Tim Boardman, Jason Kirk Bartley, Ruben Smith, Crystal Hall, Diane Kennedy, Phil Griffiths, Nadine Dunseith, Cynthia Foss, Titan Sanchez, Alex Turner, Brielle Hoban, Aviva Lilith, Spruce Craft, Frea Wooten, Rosalynn Gildart, April Bartaszewicz, Prudence Sage Massaria, Howa Ramadan, Brodeigh Pearce, Annie Walsh, Charity Louise, Sasha Pavlovic, Haley Headrick, Trisha Lawty, Noor Yousif, Hannah Louise MacFarlane, Anthony Lanza, Basil Kaye, Malachy Mackel, G.S. Yarbro, Sanda Ristić Stojanović, Bobby Z, Binod Dawadi, Fredua A .Boateng, C.W. Blackburn, James Aitchison, Eshaal Asim, Anthony Lanza, Natalie Hussey, Kiran Harrar, Gary Shulman, Abraham Aruguete, Johnathan Eldridge, Faith Graham, Amanda Sharon Hancock, Garima Sachdev Kapoor, Rita McDermott, Shahida Seedat, Jose Manoj Mathews T, Farblos Artem, Jennifer L. Alukonis, Thomas Oddie, Tricia Lloyd Waller, Lisa Anderson, Himanshu Ahuja, K. Weber and Mary Bone.
Books
Click on the covers for further details of ALL our titles. With thousands of contributions from hundreds of writers and poets around the world, our anthologies are probably some of the largest collections on mental health ever published. Please buy a copy -
ALL profits from the sales of our titles go towards promoting poetry for positive mental health.
NOW OPEN FOR CONTRIBUTIONS!
MENTAL HEALTH (Vol.3)
A collection of interviews, personal stories, poetry and short prose from around the world on the themes of mental health.
NOW OPEN FOR CONTRIBUTIONS!!
“Poetry can be mind-bogglingly confusing or ever-so simple. It can be several pages of complicated verse, or just a few simple, easy-to-read words. But one thing we know for sure is that poetry is a story, a journey, or indeed a statement, and this is created by a careful composition of words and structure, with a sole purpose of evoking strong feeling or emotion. Poetry is about form (however that is defined), purpose, and establishing your voice.”
Personal Journeys
In their own words, poets and writers write about their own personal journey with mental health.
Interviews
Poetry for Mental Health chats to writers and poets about their journey with mental health.
NEW - Articles
Articles about poetry and positive mental health.
Featured Poets
Featuring over 80 individual poets with up to six pieces of their work and a little about the author, and the stories behind their poem/s..
"People can benefit from writing poetry because it can take the images and the talk in your head and transfer it to paper. It’s like getting the words out of your head so that they don’t linger there."
Nadine Dunseith (contributor)
Directory of Support Services
Charities, groups and organisations worldwide offering mental health help and support to people in crisis.
Mental Health First Aid
Identifying warning signs of common mental health crisis, and how to guide a person towards safety and appropriate help. Read more ...
Poetry Writing Course
A FREE course for anyone, anywhere wanting to use words and poetic verse for the first time to help them express how they think and feel.
NEW - Classifieds
A great way to advertise your mental health related products and services to a global audience. From just £50.00 ... a year!
Publish your poetry collection!
Poetry for Mental Health provides a fast, inexpensive way of getting your poetry collection independently self-published in paperback and Kindle - via your own Amazon KDP platform - and distributed globally. If you have a manuscript that you would like to independently self-publish, but not sure how, or don't have the time, depending upon where you are in the world, we might be able to help. We have helped publish over 100 books for authors and poets worldwide! CLICK HERE for further details.
Newletter
Be kept updated with our news and calls for submissions.
QUICK LINKS
CONTACT
THANK YOU to the following people who have donated to Poetry For Mental Health: John Zurn, Sandra Rollins, Braxsen Sindelar, Caroline Berry, Sage Gargano, Gabriel Cleveland, April Bartaszewicz, Patricia Lynn Coughlin, Hilary Canto, Jennifer Mabus, Chris Husband, Dr Sarah Clarke, Eva Marie Dunlap, Sheri Thomas, Andrew Stallwood, Stephen Ferrett, Craig Davidson, Joseph Shannon Hodges, John Tunaley, and Patrick Oshea.