I have never suffered from any kind of mental health issues, but l know plenty who have, and still do. My brother and Mother both had issues with depression, my 2nd ex-wife does too. It is a common thing to come across in life and l am lucky to be in the minority who do not suffer from some form of this illness.
I attribute my fine mental health to one thing: The catharsis of creative writing, and in particular; poetry.
I have always written. Since school at the age of 14 when l picked a word (musculature if you must know) from a list on a blackboard from which my classmates and l had to compose a poem or some other form of creative text, which included or was specifically about the subject. I vaguely knew the meaning of the word l chose, and some would say l chose possibly the most difficult off the list, but somehow l managed to compose a funny and quite well formed poetic ditty for a 14 year old, who had only ever before written stupid alien abduction stories or silly lyrics about love up to that point. My poetry of late has been dark. But it was even darker during the time of my second divorce. But the fact that l had an outlet for those confusing and sometimes quite toxic feelings, saved my sanity and kept me on a mental even keel, for both my sake and the sake of my daughter and our relationship. We still have a good rapport, some 13 years later, and even though she is approaching 17 and at college with an ever-widening and diverse set of friends, we seem more like contemporaries than father and daughter. We have some similar tastes in music and movies, some mutual appreciation of some books and other written media. We both spend an inordinate amount of time on youtube, sometimes in her case to the detriment of her amount of needed sleep on a school night. But l digress, as l am often apt to do. Just you wait until later. I shall digress your socks off!
But for now, introductions completed, and a little of what l am about saved to these pages, l shall leave you and come back again tomorrow and the day after with more musings and occasional poems for your perusal.
Laters peeps!
Marc's poetry and musings 