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 abuse, which some people might find upsetting.
Poetry for Mental Health
Supporting people around the world through words and poetry.
Poetry for Mental Health has supported thousands of people through words and poetry! No matter what your age, background and experience, culture, nationality, 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, and help you cope through words and poetry.
About ...
"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, eight books, 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 1500 visitors a the month, it
is now probably the largest and most visited website of its kind on the net!"
ROBIN BARRATT - Founder POETRY FOR MENTAL HEALTH
"It is undeniable that putting thoughts, feelings and emotions into words, on paper, can be both therapeutic and an incredibly effective method of self-help and healing ... "
OUT NOW!
PTSD - Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
A collection of personal stories and poetry about life and living with PTSD.
Available from Amazon websites worldwide as a larger format 6 x 9 inch (15.24 x 22.86 cm) paperback and Kindle, and directly from us as paperback and pdf e-book.
ISBN: 9798255872770
277 pages
109 contributors
Over 29 countries represented.
Our Next Title ...
My Mental Health
Writers and poets around the world talk about their own personal journeys with mental health.
We are doing something slightly different for our next title by focusing purely on personal stories about mental health, so if you are a writer and/or poet, and would like to contribute to this title and share your mental health journey with others, please click on the button below:
DEADLINE END JUNE 2026.
PUBLICATION MID JULY, 2026.
NEW - This Week's Featured Poetry (x4)
Week commencing Monday 1st June, 2026.
DR V AND ME
By Jean Antonello
So, how are you?
A common cue
Its meaning light
Normally trite
I’m fine
He wants a list
My psychiatrist
My sleep my mood
Symptoms accrued
Here goes
Rushing thoughts
Scattered and fraught
With much distress
No gentleness
I’m tense
Then I slow down
Collapse in a frown
The pain inside
One can’t abide
So sad
Next urgency
Captures me
Get things done
No time for fun
Look out
A darkness glares
No one cares
The curse is back
A heart attack
So what?
Seesaw life
Both sides strife
Dead or crazed
Dr V unphased
That’s me
This week
FAULT IN THE ROAD
By Emily Astey
My life had stopped abruptly
even before I hit the ground.
After years of deafening chaos,
there suddenly was no sound.
A brief respite from turmoil
birthed a single revelation.
And when my eyes had stirred again
I felt no hesitation.
But what I couldn’t calculate
were the figures soon exposed.
How they lured me to a roseate end
that I often thought was closed.
Cliché, but now I understand
what precedes a prescribed doom.
Images I once had buried
resurrected from their tomb.
Like album pages neatly arranged
for my viewing pleasure.
The pictures revealing only truth
leaving something to discover.
I hated everything I saw.
It turned my stomach sickly.
I figured I must enact a plan,
and had to do it quickly.
I know that I was thinking
because my brain indeed engaged.
But the deluge of emotion
encouraged me to come enraged.
My body shocked to silence
Even my heart was rendered mute.
It all assumed a swift retreat
as I commenced this deep pursuit.
This now inspires retrospection
since my efforts disappoint.
No ashes gathered from the flame.
No body to anoint.
So, in sum it was a failure.
Even I shocked by results.
Instead of once clear resolution,
I just now see all my faults.
But was it I to blame for error?
My plan of quick design.
Excitement shattered contemplation
like a chalice full of wine.
And what I rendered to be blood
could then not be contained.
What was released upon the scene
left more than just a stain.
THE ARSONIST
By Erin McCluskey
Guilt is a brush fire,
charring her tissue paper skin.
The burn of blame,
the scorch of shame,
like gasoline,
stokes the flames.
From somewhere beyond the abyss,
a silvery voice,
like snow,
arrives quietly on a whisper,
abruptly evaporating into the embers.
The sound of grace often visits the self-imprisoned.
Hawking up the ash that had made a home in her lungs,
she wipes the toxins from her lips.
“I am good,” she utters through hot tears,
at long last, drinking in clean air.
The truth had risen up.
The smoke, dissipating.
Deliverance had been there all along,
waiting patiently.
An old friend buried in the marrow of her bones.
ABOUT THE POEM: “The Arsonist” illustrates how shame can fester like a contaminant in our bodies. Yet, because shame is self-inflicted, so is our ability to set ourselves free.
ABOUT ERIN: Erin is a writer, actor, and filmmaker based in New Orleans, USA.
THE GIRL WHO DOESN'T FIT HERE
By Emma Welch
He called her the black sheep
The words echoed over and over
Her hands began to shake
A girl who doesn’t fit here
The words stung deep in her chest
You aren’t like us, you are different
But my blood is the same as yours
My name still belongs to this house
A girl who doesn’t fit here
A family portrait on the wall
I thought I belonged in too
I guess being myself isn’t enough
So I learned to grow smaller
A girl who doesn’t fit here
How I tried to fit in more
Always living up to expectation
But how could I, when he was always disappointed
I often wondered why I existed
A girl who doesn’t fit here
A dad, a bully—his words were razor sharp
How he cut me down to doubt myself
A mother who tried to keep the peace
Words that damage a young soul
A girl who doesn’t fit here
The anxiety started to creep in
Slow at first, then growing like a wave
I needed my mum every day—please help
My dad said she couldn’t help anymore
A girl who doesn’t fit here
A field where my dad can no longer hurt me
Alone and unloved, but finally at peace
How I marked my own path
The black sheep who didn’t fit
Lots more Featured Poetry here:
Our Books
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 ...
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 Books
Promoting poetry books and publications.
And lots more ...
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.
What's new at Poetry for Mental Health ...
Poetry for Mental Health's newsletter:
May 2026.
Click the button below to download a pdf version.
NEWSLETTER
Send us your name and email address and we'll keep you updated with what's new at
Poetry for Mental Health, plus calls for submissions for our titles and website. IMPORTANT: we'll never pass your details onto anyone else ... ever!
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 poetry 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:
We have published over 100 books for other people. Just a few examples below:
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.
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