Poetry Archivi - One Global Voice

“Wounds of Brokeness”, when healing is nothing but a mirage

12 Giugno 202312 Giugno 2023 Gaia Resta

Sometimes mental issues manifest in waves. Long, apparently peaceful times can be followed by new, unexpected waves of pain. And you find yourself again into waters you thought were already gone and that, instead, have changed their course to come for you. Traumas emerge from the depths of your sorrow and your never fully healed wounds start to bleed again. Ghanaian Afia Amoaa Oppong-Kwakye describes in her poem this condition of incredulity and helplessness in front of the destructive force of mental suffering; something strong enough to numb your will and make healing seem impossible.

“The Day I Will Recover”, the road to healing from mental illness

9 Dicembre 20229 Dicembre 2022 Gaia Resta

A poem conjugated in the future tense, the time of hope and life to come. A life our Rwandan author strongly wants to be free from anxiety and depression. To him, looking ahead to the future means to envision himself as finally healed and actively promoting mental health awareness to stop the stigma. It means being able to pick up a pen and write, returning to the village where you grew up to say to all men that, yes, they are allowed to cry and share their burdens. And, eventually, it means to write on all the walls the word “resilience” so that can anyone can see it and know it.

“Depression”, when it loosens its grip music sounds differently

4 Novembre 20224 Novembre 2022 Gaia Resta

Often people with a (mental) illness turns to personification as a way of coping with it. The illness becomes an entity with a life and a will of its own. So Tanzanian author Delphina Robert writes a letter poem to her despression that has suddently left, after being with her for a long time. Nobody informed her of this “departure” but this new absence makes itself very clear: music has a very different sound now. And despite initially feeling akward in this condition, the loosening of depression’s grip leaves room to relief and to a blank space ready to be filled up with new words.

“Midnight Crisis”, when you take cover under the roof of trauma

19 Ottobre 20222 Dicembre 2022 Gaia Resta

The days go by in solitude; the narrator is far from her family and has no access to means of communications. She then looks at a picture of herself, a glowing and enthusiastic version of herself very different from her perception in that moment. From that observation emerges a dialogue with the self, as she looks for a sense of identity, for personal and family history and eventually, for a sense of belonging. So she returns with her mind to her parents, to her grandmothers and individual and intergenerational traumas, such an “unbalanced cycle of life” we try to make sense of.

“Return(ing) to Sender”, when that illness brings to constant lying

14 Ottobre 202214 Ottobre 2022 Gaia Resta

A visiting mother, a complicated relationship that emerges from the daughter’s hope to avoid the meeting. To avoid her worried and interrogative look on a body that doesn’t “function” properly, that rejects and shuts down. The same body her mother once fed is now rejecting nourishment; and its gradual crumbling and dissolving almost provokes a pleasant sensation, a pleasure that can’t be said out loud. Tanzanian poet Lydia Kasese describes all this and how the certainty that one day we all go back to where we came from turns into an alibi to let the illness nurture you and not react to this force fighting your body and mind.

“Dispatch from Ward C”, those wounded words in a hospital room

23 Settembre 202223 Settembre 2022 Gaia Resta

This poem by Sarah Lubala is a voice. It’s a voice that speaks to us as it reads a dispatch from a psychiatric ward. In a dreamy, surreal atmosphere, we see fleeting images as if browsing pictures taken in a hospital: a dead bird on the back stairs, the noisy corridors, a roommate with a razor blade… And these images get mixed with distant memories that suddenly and uncontrollably emerge and take over, making room for personal and intergenerational trauma. In the meantime stonewashed linen is “summering at the window” as a sign of hope, that life “out there” is possible – through acceptance and healing.

“A letter to my best friend” is a letter to oneself, a hope for healing

16 Settembre 202216 Settembre 2022 Gaia Resta

Tanzanian author Leah Gerald Soko recounts how she wrote this poem at night, her mind storming and troubled. Feeling useless and unable to do anything about her challenges in life and above all, feeling she had no one to talk to, she turned to writing. A letter to her best friend becomes the chance to open up about her innermost feelings, to face her difficulties and encourage herself to accept her pain and be responsible for her own recovery. In Leah’s words, writing has been “a breakthrough towards depression and anxiety” and it represents now a way “to heal and feel strong about myself”.

“Finally at peace”, the last bullet will let you fly high in the sky

3 Agosto 202231 Agosto 2022 Gaia Resta

Reem Yasir, Sudanese poet, opens her poem “in medias res”. The protagonist has a gun in her hand, it’s loaded. There are three bullets, three chances of ending it. Of silencing that evil voice in the head that has always commented every action and thought insulting and belittling. But the protagonist misses and the voices becomes even more cruel. The final lines of the poem portray all the contrasting emotions that can be felt in such a desperate moment: the exasperation of a soul that can’t find any peace and the unspoken, touching desire for a different life.

“Mental Mess”, the generation that dreamed of peace and freedom

23 Giugno 202215 Settembre 2022 Antonella Sinopoli

“[…] for pieces of me are everywhere… and in everywhere… are their names… the ones who faced death and still breathing… the ones who faced death and got the likes of me choking for air ever since… But yet… In everywhere, there are still dreamers I know will create realities my mind can’t yet comprehend… I mean, even babies are born fighting… resisting… hands in fists… so here is to the generation that dreamed of a better nation… dreamed of peace, justice and freedom…” Those are Rajaa Bushra’s words for the young sudanese revolutionaries. A revolution that in Rajaa – and many others – has brought a never healed trauma.

“Living with bipolar disorder”, questioning yourself and reality

18 Marzo 202215 Settembre 2022 Gaia Resta

Self-awareness is the first step towards healing and young Kenyan writer Emily K Millern knows it well. She often writes about her mental health struggles and so trasforms an unusual topic for poetry into art, achieving a therapeutic effect for herself and her readers. Sharing personal experiences – as her bipolar disorder – “reminds us that we are not alone, we are part of a bigger fight and we all have a role to play”, as she said. In fact, Emily strongly advocates for raising public awareness on mental health, a subject as sensitive as underestimated and neglected.