OWL

So 1 Feb was National Time to Talk Day – aiming to break the silence around mental health issues. Better late than never, here’s a poem I wrote recently about a mental health issue I’ve suffered from.

OWL

I know your form, anxiety,
I know your shape,
I know the wounds from which you’re born
and the black noise you make.

There is a field, laid out
in the hollow hours of the night,
pressed upon by snow,
silent as a held breath –

suddenly its fabric is impaled
by the screaming owl
surging down
like an apocalypse;

it snatches the small lump of life –
unknowing then all-knowing at once –
and with a whump of its wings
flies home to darkness.

Again the field
dare not breathe.
Let me tell you
what anxiety is like for me.

 

– Gideon Heugh

Do check out https://www.time-to-change.org.uk