#poetsin Update - 2017 Recap and Huge News!  My apologies for not being present. #life has been hectic, I'm writing my own book, putting together #poetsin first collaborative anthology to which we had over 100 submissions, I've been formatting and writing contracts for our exclusive prison book, From the Inside Out, and I've been working hard to get new staff in, making contacts, etc etc.  I wrote a blog piece earlier this week that looks into the past year at #poetsin, and I'd like to share it all with you. But before I do, I'd like to make a huge announcement. #poetsin have been honoured by The Mighty as one of their Mental Health Heroes of 2017. This is huge. We are named alongside the late, fucking amazing Chester Bennington's wife. It's some achievement. If you'd like to read the article that announced our success, please let me know.  Right, on with my reflections.  I wish you all a happy new year. Here's to a creative 2018.  Make each word count. xoxo  ____  2017 is almost over, and here at #poetsin HQ we're in a reflective mood. It's that time of year where we sit, take stock, and look back at everything we have achieved, everything we are proud of, and the things we are glad to leave behind. Despite only being registered as a charity since September, #poetsin was founded twenty months ago. Paul, Lish, Karen, and I all worked hard to form a solid foundation that would enable rehabilitation and aid mental wellness for all of the vulnerable people we were working with. Since then, we have a bunch of things to be proud of here's our list of achievements:

1. We received charitable status, from the Charity Commission after a long road of improving our service to ensure maximum impact and success.
2. We took our first grant, enabling us to grow, to reach more people, and to continue the good work we have already started.
3. We opened submissions for our debut book, which will highlight the stigma around mental illness, along with showcasing the talent within the writing community, offering a platform and a voice to many.
4. We have received permission to publish a book with words of the prisoners we have worked with, which included being able to take a photographer into prison, which is very rare indeed. (Pics and book, coming soon)
5. We have become an approved supplier to prison networks, which enables us to raise vital funds for the charity.
6. Of the service users we have worked with 100% of those individuals have seen improvement in their mental wellness, along with improvement in their spelling, grammar, and grasp of using creative writing to purge.
7. We have helped service users cease self-harm using our program as a coping strategy.
8. We have been nominated for an award by an institution we work with, for our efforts within their walls.
9. We have grown our very own Facebook writing community, that is growing by the day and is full of support.
10. We are in the midst of launching our YouTube channel with a debut video created using the words of our service users.

There are many more achievements that we could list, but one more thing that must be shared, are the relationships we have made along the way. The friends we have made from across the world, that have supported and encouraged us to continue even when red-tape and policy held us back. We've passed those barriers now, and it was because of those friends that we made it through with smiles on our faces.   2017 has been kind, but as mentioned above, it has also thrown many curveballs in our direction. Setting up a charity is something that none of us have had any experience in doing, so as you can imagine, it was no easy feat. Our humour, our creativity, and practicing what we preach, has certainly helped and motivated us along the way. Three things that we're glad to say goodbye to this year are: Forms - Yes, we know we'll have loads more to fill in shortly, but we're thankful for a break from these for the time being. We've filled in around 12 in the past 4 months alone. They certainly don't make them simple anymore! Red Tape - For now, that tape has been firmly broken with our pen-shaped scissors. No doubt red tape will visit us in the future, but we now have more of an idea of how to move past it with relative ease. The Set Up - Setting up a charity takes a long time, it's a journey we are grateful for and will never forget, but we are glad to move on from that, to use our time to reach more people, change more lives, and raise awareness across the country, and the world. So, that's us for the year. What have your highlights been? What are you most happy to leave behind? We're coming for you, 2018. We're going to use you to change lives with our words. Until next year, friends. Team #poetsin Paul, Sammie, Karen, Lish. xoxo

he haunts me   the wind is his whispers  gales that gasp in my ear  that with each whoosh  speak the word worthless.  the same breeze that used to exhale sighs and lullabies of ‘i love you’s’  and sounds of lust threatening to never end.    the sun is his touch  once setting my skin ablaze with his heat  igniting my senses  i’d lean into his touch, my body aching for more  now it scorches leaving me burnt with the blisters  of his absence    the rain was his purity  washing away my insecurity  until each droplet turned to acid  which falls from the sky  and pools in my chest  rotting the flesh  of my once apple-red heart    he was the roaring log fire in the snow  - our two bodies tangled under sheets  keeping me warm  (he knew i got so cold)  then the snow melted  and we thawed, too  he didn’t reappear  until he snowed on me  - freezing me  encapsulating me in his frost  i laid amongst him  and made a snow angel  to remind myself i still existed  even when i felt so dead inside    he haunts me   i hear him in the wind i see him in the sunshine i feel him in the spring rain  i taste him on the tip of my tongue  if i close my eyes  his image is branded on my eyelids  his name tattooed on my heart my love for him running through my veins  leaking onto the page as ink that drips  into #poems  into stories of love and heartbreak  into messages of me begging him  to stop hurting me  into my plea’s of asking him to change,  to come back to me  to say the words i need to hear  to say enough to stop me saying goodbye    but he doesn’t   he doesn’t because he is the river  that runs  to the bottom of the waterfall  - he tells me he’ll catch me  when i fall but i know that if i leapt  he’d drown me - hold me under his riptide    after everything he stole from me  how can i trust him again?  he stole my moon  and the stars at night  how can i ever truly ‘see’ him again  when he’s left me in darkness  and has stolen my light...      #Fiction #Poetry #norhyme #freeverse #amwriting #poetsofopusia 

#poetsin Open for Submissions It’s time to make a difference to more lives out there. Mental illness has touched my #life both personally, and through my family and friends. It was my main inspiration when coming up with the idea of #poetsin with my co-founder. We are delighted to be able to tell you that we have opened submissions for our debut book. All sales proceeds goes to #poetsin which enables us to reach more people with mental illness. I could write so much more about mental illness and the statistics, but if you visit #poetsin.com/mental-health/mental-illness you'll find all of that and submission details, too. I hope to see many of you submitting. I'm going to tag a bunch of you in the comments, but please tag more if there's people you think may be interested.  Getting writing!  xox    ##poetsin #MentalHealthAwareness #Mentalillness #stopthestigma 

Opusia, #poetsin, and Mental Health Help. Dear Opusians, every single one of you. For those of you who do not know, I am the co-founder and CEO of #poetsin, a charity that rehabilitates and aids mental wellness through the power of words. We work with a plethora of people, including some of the most vulnerable people in our society in a bid to help them heal. We share the content of our writing groups from a UK based prison, right here, on Opusia. This content is their homework, designed to improve their writing skills, whilst showing them a way to purge their unwanted feelings thus allowing their confidence and self-worth to grow. The comments from this content gets passed directly to the prison resident, giving them a sense of pride. It also serves to show them that they aren’t being judged by their mistakes, and that there are people who will listen and understand the way in which they feel. We give a voice to the voiceless. Around 90% of the people we work with have mental illness of some sort. Some more severe than others. We’ve had many success stories throughout the 18 months of operation, and have seen many mental illnesses reduce through the power of words and using those words as a coping strategy, and a therapy. One of the most severe cases we have worked with is a woman who self-harmed every day. She suffers with severe multiple personality disorder along with episodes of psychosis. When I first met her, I came away from the prison and cried for her. For the scars she had caused on her arms – the worst I’d ever seen – which went through the skin, through the muscle and to the bone. That was 18 months ago. Today? She’s been 6 months with no self-harm due to techniques we (#poetsin) have taught her. She’s an excellent writer, and a beautiful soul that, in my opinion, doesn’t deserve to be punished when she was let down by society. She is why Paul and I continued battling constant red tape to get to where we are. Since then we have worked with many other women who use self-harm as a mechanism to release pain, to cope. One of whom this last week has written, and we have posted, three pieces about self-harm. I know that the fact that this particular girl is writing about self-harm means she’s not self-harming, however, this may not be transparent to everyone reading the words she writes. As a human being, let alone as a charity, I feel it is important to make anyone and everyone aware of the services around them should they feel as though they are in crisis and writing simply isn’t helping them enough to rid themselves of those thoughts or feelings. Firstly, let me make this point. Between #poetsin and Opusia, know that this beautiful place is a place of zero judgement, 100% understanding, and comes with the most incredible community there is online. I have made #lifelong relationships with many people here, people I consider friends – some of them the finest friends anyone could ever hope for. It’s a safe place here to share and explore your feelings – where race, gender, sexuality, religion, and all the other things that divides the world, doesn’t apply. It’s a place where words connect us. A realm where words heal, words make us laugh and cry, together, as a family of wordies who live and breathe the ink that drips from our pens. So, please, purge your pain, and if you need someone to listen, tag me, tag @Honza. We will direct you to the right help if we can’t help ourselves. Secondly, I’ve written a Wiki right here on Opusia, filled with information of where you can get extra help should you need it. This will grow as Opusia does to include as much help and information as possible. Initially, it has UK contacts and advice, but I am working hard on a USA list and a list for the rest of the world, too. To find the UK wiki, head here: https://opusia.com/wiki/uk-mental-health-help Lastly, each piece we post here that may have triggering content, we will add a triggerwarning hashtag. We will also add the link to the Wiki with a bunch of contacts should you find yourself in crisis. #poetsin and Opusia are committed to providing a safe haven for everyone. Please shout me or Honza should you need any assistance at all. If you, or someone you know, feels #poetsin could help them, please visit #poetsin.com/contact and send us a referral.  Sammie xo    ##poetsin #Opusia #WritersofOpusia #Pinners #MentalHealth #stopthestigma #HelpAndSupport

UK Mental Health Help For Emergencies: If you are in crisis, or you have a loved one in crisis, either call 999 for the emergency services or if you are unsure whether an emergency call is warranted, call NHS Direct on 111 (0845 46 47 in Wales). #poetsin  #poetsin rehabilitate and aid mental wellness using creative writing as a therapy. They work in prisons, schools, mental health facilities, and other institutions. If you, or a person you know, feels that #poetsin could help you, visit #poetsin.com/contact to send a referral to them.  The Smaritans: Call 116 123, free. They offer emotional support 24 hours a day, in confidence. They can also help you if you have suicidal thoughts, or thoughts about harming yourself. You can also email jo@samaritans.org.uk They offer a Rethink advice and information line, Monday to Friday, 10am-2pm for practical advice on Therapy and medication Benefits, debt, and money issues. Police, courts, and prison. Your rights under the mental health act. Call: 0300 5000 927 (calls are charged at your local rate.)   Mind: You can call Mind’s infoline on 0300 123 3393 (UK landline calls are charged at local rates and charges from mobile phones may vary. You can also email info@mind.org.uk This service offers information about: Mental health problems Where to get help Drug and alternative treatments Advocacy Mind also offer a legal service that helps with legal advice about the following: Mental health Mental capacity Community care Human rights and discrimination/equality laws related to mental health issues. To access this service, you can call 0300 466 6463 (UK landlines are charged at local rates and mobile charges may vary.) You can also email legal@mind.org.uk   Harmless harmless.org.uk User-led organisation for people who self-harm, and their friends and families. #lifesigns #lifesigns.org.uk User-led self-harm guidance and support network. The Mix 0808 808 4994 (helpline) themix.org.uk Helpline and online support for people aged 16–25. National Self Harm Network (NSHN) nshn.co.uk Survivor-led closely monitored forum for people who self-harm, and their friends and families. SANEline. SANEline offers emotional support and information from 6pm–11pm, 365 days a year. Their national number is 0300 304 7000. The Silver Line. If you're an older person (over the age of 55), the Silver Line is there 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to provide information, support and friendship. You can call them from anywhere in the UK on 0800 4 70 80 90 (freephone). CALM. If you're a man experiencing distressing thoughts and feelings, the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) is there to support you. They're open from 5pm–midnight, 365 days a year. Their national number is 0800 58 58 58, and they also have a webchat service if you're not comfortable talking on the phone. Nightline. If you are a student, you can look at the Nightline website to see if your university or college offers a night-time listening service. Nightline phone operators are all students too. Switchboard, the LGBT+ helpline. If you identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, Switchboard is available from 10am–11pm, 365 days a year, to listen to any problems you're having. Phone operators all identify as LGBT+. Their national number is 0300 330 0630, or you can email chris@switchboard.lgbt. C.A.L.L. If you live in Wales, you can contact the Community Advice and Listening Line (C.A.L.L). for a confidential listening and support service. Their number is 0800 123 737 or you can text 'help' to 81066 Papyrus HOPEline. If you're under 35 and struggling with suicidal feelings and self-harm, the Papyrus HOPEline can offer practical advice. They're open weekdays 10am–10pm, weekends 2pm–10pm and bank holidays 2pm–5pm. Their national number is 0800 068 4141, or you can email pat@papyrus-uk.org or text 07786 209 697.   Other Helplines: Anxiety UK runs a helpline on weekdays between 9.30am–5.30pm, on 08444 775 774. b-eat run a helpline for people experiencing an eating disorder. The national number is 0845 364 1414 or you can email them at help@b-eat.co.uk. Bipolar UK has an information and support line open weekdays between 9am–5pm, on 020 7931 6480. Carers UK offers help and advice on weekdays between 10am–4pm. Their national number is 0808 808 7777 or you can email them at advice@carers.uk. Cruse Bereavement Care can offer support if you're feeling in crisis after someone you know has died. Their helpline is open on weekdays between 9.30–5pm (and until 8pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings). The national number is 0844 477 9400 or you can email helpline@cruse.org.uk. No Panic run a helpline for people experiencing anxiety disorders, open 10am–10pm, 365 days a year, on 0844 967 4848. OCD UK has an advice line open weekdays between 9am–5pm on 0845 120 3778, or you can email them at support@ocduk.org. Rape Crisis - freephone number 0808 802 9999 Domestic Abuse helpline - 0808 2000 247   (This list is non-exhaustive and we will update this regularly.)