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 has supported thousands of people around the world through words and poetry!
"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."
About ...
ROBIN BARRATT - Founder POETRY FOR MENTAL HEALTH
"I formed Poetry for Mental Health at the outbreak of COVID, as a way of helping people cope mentally through lockdown and the pandemic by inspiring them to write poetry. Six years, seven books (just started working on our eighth), many hundreds of poets, and many thousands of pieces of poetry later, Poetry for Mental Health is still inspiring people to write poetry for positive mental health! And with almost 1900 visitors for the month of Jan, 2026, it is now probably the largest and most visited website of its kind on the net!"
Visitor stats, 26th Jan, 2026
CONTRIBUTE TO OUR NEXT ANTHOLOGY ...
SUBMISSIONS TO THIS TITLE ARE NOW OPEN!
You can now contribute to the next title in our acclaimed mental health book series:
PTSD - Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: A collection of interviews, personal stories, poetry and short prose from around the world on the subject of PTSD.
We are looking for poetry, short prose, interviews and personal stories.
Deadline 31st March 2026
Publication date: SPRING 2026.
Click on the link below for further details and submission guidelines. You can also sponsor this important title too!
NEW - This Week's Featured Poetry (x3)
Week commencing Monday 16th February, 2026.
THE IRONY OF LEAD
By Maddi Smith-Nelson
I have navigated the waters
of numbness,
spiritual agony itself.
As the ego forgets.
I am lost in dark shadows.
The psychiatrists know
I fear their clinical states,
their enduring psychic oppression.
But the healing nature of light
will not let me go.
The soul is bitten, hidden.
So, I may walk through the dark
collecting missing souls.
Aligning them with their freedom
and giving limbo a door.
We are not damaged freaks.
We are survivors of the darkest fires.
Wishing to love and live
despite the knocks of hell,
the internal beast.
We are flames of pure, compassionate
unconditional love.
For those who walk
the dark waters of Psychiatry.
Its secrets forced
Into our hearts.
I have muted the mute.
There is a blink in the eye of eternity,
A moment of laughter for the Soul.
ABOUT MADDI: "I hold a masters in creative writing and wellbeing and am an astrologer and reiki master. I have experienced intense trauma within the Mental Health System. I consider myself a navigator of dark clinical states."
THERE'S ALWAYS AN ANSWER
By James Aitchison
In the wet, the Gulf Country floods.
North Queensland becomes a lake.
Creeks run five metres deep,
ten metres wide.
Then comes the drought.
The rocky creek beds are dry,
death hangs in the sullen afternoon,
the heat sucks the air from your lungs,
tree roots cling to the lifeless sandstone,
leaves limp, desolation everywhere,
no hope of survival.
But dig —
dig deep —
and the dry, dead rock
yields its miracle — clean, fresh water,
from an ocean buried in the sandstone,
the source of life that waits for your discovery.
Like everything in this world, you just
have to know it's there ...
THE BENEDICTION FOR THE DETAINED
By Thy-Justice A Lumen
She would pray for all of day
For change for those detained,
Across earths way, and across the UK
And in the way she would pray for all of day
That change would help and surely stay
For when it stayed, none had they paid
For their pain and suffering
The sufferings felt by those detained
Those in fear, those whom are pained
Those that feel heavy
Those that feel ashamed
For when they know God’s love is there
Only then do they know of care
Care they wish they could receive
If only, in all of their dreams
For dreams are broken
When systems are broken
And all of their words
Are left unspoken
Never to be heard , never again
What was this lord, was this pain
I’d never wish it to ever, return again
For in their shame, was their gain
Of souls and of hearts
When the new mental health act spoke, No more would we lose our hope
Hopes of a better start, not one from far apart, One that comes from the heart
For when souls learned to dance,
And hearts sung from the lung
That’s when they really can dance that chance
Then the detained's footsteps, The restrained ones
The ones on the floor, Like never before
Never again, can they do this,
not no more, not like this
For when the system gets it right
Our lights, will light, light so bright
For every day and every night, it wont be such a fight
In a place we can be free, free as you, not as me
Because the Reform can’t you see, Needs to be rolled out
URGENTLY
ABOUT THE POEM: "The piece is written from lived experience and reflects on psychiatric detention, restraint, faith, and the urgent need for compassionate mental health reform."
ABOUT THY-JUSTICE:
Thy-Justice is a UK-based writer and lived-experience advocate. Her work explores mental health, detention, faith, and systemic justice, drawing on personal experience of psychiatric care and recovery. She writes to give voice to those whose experiences are often silenced, and to support compassionate reform within mental health systems.
Lots more Featured Poetry here:
Our Books
Personal Journeys
In their own words, writers and poets write about their own personal journey with mental health.
Interviews
Ten amazing writers and poets talking about their own personal journey with mental health.
Featured Poets
Featuring poets from around the world, with up to six pieces of their work, and a little about the author and the stories behind their work.
And lots more ...
Featured Books
Promoting poetry books and publications.
Articles
Articles about poetry and positive mental health.
Publishing Services
We publish books for other people too!!!
Would you like to see your poetry collection published as a paperback and Kindle, and available for other people to read around the world? Prices start from just £150.00 for a chapbook / short collection. Click on the link for more info. Plus Promoting Your Book- information and advice for promoting and marketing your book. We have published over 100 books for other people. Just a few examples below:
Other ...
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.
Newsletters ...
What's new at Poetry for Mental Health. Our monthly newsletters are now available to read online.
Send us your name and email address and we'll keep you updated with our news and calls for submissions. We'll never send you more than one email a month, or pass your details onto anyone else ... ever!
PLEASE DONATE - ALL donations go towards promoting and publishing poetry for mental health. Click on the button below for donation options or contact us to sponsor this platform. Thank you!
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.