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 has supported thousands of people around the world through words and poetry!"
~
Poetry for Mental Health
Supporting people with mental health challenges by motivating and inspiring them to write poetry.
ROBIN BARRATT - Founder POETRY FOR MENTAL HEALTH
"Now in my early 60s, I have had a number of significant mental health challenges throughout my life, and have often found it almost impossible to cope. As a Mental Health First Aider, with extensive mental health support training, I supply private one-to-one mental health support across the UK county of Norfolk. At the outbreak of COVID, I also formed
Poetry for Mental Health as a way of helping people cope mentally through lockdown and the pandemic by inspiring them to write poetry. Five years, seven books, hundreds of poets, and thousands of pieces of poetry later,
Poetry for Mental Health
is still inspiring people to write poetry for positive mental health! And with around 1400 visitors each and every month, it
is now probably the largest and most visited website of its kind on the net!"
~
"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!"
NEW - This Week's Featured Poetry (x3)
Week commencing Monday 13th October, 2025
THE SILENT ASSASSIN
By Jason Kirk Bartley
The silent assassin,
Sneaks into your life,
Causing such trouble,
Basking in strife,
He crawls into the shadows of your mind and
wants to cause such stress,
He will not give up,
will not settle for less,
He’s like a black panther getting
nearer than near,
till it rushes toward you causing such fear,
Stalking its prey into the clear,
So helpless,
So innocent,
You try and get away.
It chases after you,
Biting at your heels,
Taking your endurance,
Weaker you begin to feel,
No more can you fight this creature
that hides in the recesses
of the night.
The pain and the struggle,
As you try and fight,
And you try and persevere,
To no avail,
It follows you and strikes you into fear,
It’s a living hell.
Everyone seems to be against you.
No one is there,
When you need them most,
No one seems to care,
As the silent assassin,
Whispers in your ear,
Every fear becomes reality,
As his voice now you hear,
You struggle to function,
And have a good life,
It’s not the end,
but clearly a new start,
for the ones who persevere,
and guard their hearts,
praying that God will take it away,
But realizing we fight every day,
The silent assassin,
Keeping it real,
We must be strong,
When weak we feel,
The struggle, the pain,
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel,
We must go forward,
if we want to gain,
Not succumb to the darkness,
Nor the pain,
The darkness must stay,
Stronger we get,
This fight we must win,
And not forget,
No longer are we prey,
My friend.
ABOUT JASON: Jason resides in Ohio. He is 50 years of age and struggles with paranoid schizophrenia, and although he has been through so much, he has now been stable for close to 20 years. He has a Masters degree in ministry from Ohio Christian University in Circleville, Ohio, won a number of awards, and has been published in various places. He loves each and every one of you and wants to help you. "God bless you all. There is hope."
LOOKING INTO A MIRROR
By Duane Anderson
I looked into a mirror today,
but what did I see,
was it someone I was very familiar with,
someone I did not recognize,
or would it bring back no reflection at all?
Maybe I was now bigfoot,
a large, hairy creature,
one ready to go to a barber,
in need of a shave and a haircut,
one ready to dive head first into a bubble bath
to get my first ever cleaning,
one ready to update my wardrobe
to finally see how I look in some clothes,
one ready to consider looking for a job
to see what I may have missed in life,
but before I do any of these things,
please take a picture of how I currently look,
so I will have a before and after photo.
*Taken from Anxiety and Depression
ABOUT DUANE: Duane currently lives in New England, USA. He has had poems published in Fine Lines, Cholla Needles, Tipton Poetry Journal, and several other publications. He is the author of: On the Corner of Walk and Don’t Walk, The Blood Drives: One Pint Down, Conquer the Mountains, and Family Portraits.
SUPPORT NONSUPPORT
By Jennifer Alukonis
It’s very humbling…
When nobody recognizes your hard work,
and family doesn’t give you their support.
Those who are the strongest know how it feels to receive their nonsupport.
I support their nonsupport, because it’s made me a very humble sport.
ABOUT JENNIFER: Jennifer writes under the pen name, JLA Poetry. Jen has PTSD, PNES (psychogenic nonepileptic seizures), and Epilepsy. Writing helps her confront her demons and manage her conditions.
Lots more Featured Poetry ...
On the themes of mental health, from hundreds of poets around the world.
"Why is poetry so very good for people with mental health challenges? Because it helps them see the world in their own way, and in a way that makes sense to them ..."
Robin Barratt
Our 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 and publishing poetry for positive mental health.
"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
Personal Journeys
In their own words, SIXTEEN incredible writers and poets write about their own personal journey with mental health.
Interviews
Poetry for Mental Health chats to nine amazing writers and poets about their journey with mental health.
Featured Poets
Featuring SEVENTY-FIVE poets around the world, with up to six pieces of their work, and a little about the author and the stories behind their work.
NEW - Featured Books
A NEW service promoting books and publications on the themes of mental health. MORE TITLES ONLINE SHORTLY ...
Articles
Articles about poetry and positive mental health.
Writing Poetry for Mental Health Course
Our new online Writing Poetry for Mental Health course will be available again soon!
We are established internationally as one of the leading resources for poetry and mental health and, over the past five years, have supported hundreds people across the world and showcased thousands of pieces of poetry! If you already write poetry, but would like to further develop your skills and style, or have not written a word of poetry in your life, but would like to start, then this course will be perfect for you.
Other ...
NEW - Classified Adverts
Advertise your mental health and related products and services and reach thousands of people around the world.
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. More info ...
Self-Publishing Services
We publish books for other people too! Poetry for Mental Health also helps writers and poets self-publish their own titles via Amazon's global publishing platforms.
Mental Health Awareness
Safer Minds believes everyone, everywhere should have some awareness of basic mental health.
Merchandise ...
Poetry for Mental Health mugs
AVAILABLE SHORTLY ... Our Poetry for Mental Health mugs, ideal for a brew while you are concentrating on your words! Con post internationally*.
Contact us for further details and prices.
*To selected countries only.
Newletter
Be kept updated with our news and calls for submissions. We'll never send you more than one email a month!
“No matter how bad something may seem at that moment in time when you feel all is lost, it can get better if you can only give it more time."
Lynda Tavakoli
NOTE ON CONTRIBUTIONS: 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.
