Last week we celebrated Mental Health Awareness week in our school. The official theme was ‘loneliness’ and, across the week, we encouraged our students to build meaningful connections with friends, family and communities. We also challenged them to write a poem or draw a picture about loneliness and how to connect with others. Thank you to all of the wonderful students who have take part for opening their hearts and sharing their magnificent work with us.
Poems
In Isolation by Georgina Y11
Worried and busy,
The outside remains burning
And hustling with the traffic of society,
And brushing talk with hurried walk
Clashes in the air.
The wind lashes my skin;
The noise whips my ear;
The emptiness rages beneath me.
But tick tock the clock goes on,
As I sit behind the wall.
Warmth and laughter
Infused into paint on the walls,
Dance and bubble in conversation
My little part weakens
And slowly fades
Away.
It merges into the paint on the walls,
While the cold and cries despair.
But tip tap the water drips,
As I am here without being seen.
Dark and quiet,
Half the world sleeps
In a calm, continuous rhythm. It creeps
Through, seeping in every thought
And echoes in the mind;
The false warmth of sentimental fabric
Wraps around me.
This abyssal darkness is eternal.
But beep beep the phone rings,
As I lie on top of my troubles.
I sit,
I am here,
And I lie,
In isolation.
Absence and misery is the
Product of this world and I.
But move, move the world whispers,
As I continue on.
Regret by Y8 Student
You pretend you don’t care
But you do
You see it when people are having fun
Without you
You see it in the forced smiles of everyone
The small talk
The politeness
How, to everyone else,
It’s something that must be done
Communicating with you
It’s forced, it’s manners, it’s kindness
When you try to open up you see it in their eyes
It’s pity
You pretend you have a heart of stone
When really you’re crumbling to dust
Dust, it seems, is what people see you as anyway
Unworthy of being remembered
There’s nothing encasing your heart
No permafrost,
No iron bars
It’s vulnerable, you won’t admit it
Because that would mean spilling your guts
You think you’re determined
Making it through your day
You’ve suffered
It’s worthy of complaints.
You manage it without a tear in your eye
Your feelings carefully concealed
You think you’re determined
But this proves you’re not
You’ve understood that short term relief
Isn’t as good as you thought
Long term is the only thing worthwhile
But that requires effort, and sadly
It sometimes seems like it’s too late
You keep it all in the mask you wear
Letting go requires strength
But sometimes you wish people could see the pain in your eyes
But as usual, you’re downgraded to dust
People think you’re a hindrance
An unwelcome stimulator of guilt
You dream of better days
But don’t realise
Those better days will only come if you try
And people give you a chance
You bite your tongue and taste the regret
Loneliness by Y9 Student
Don’t you dare tell me that I’m not alone
Otherwise my head would be free
From sitting here in the middle of the night, consumed by thoughts
And I wouldn’t be blasting music through these headphones to distract me.
Don’t you dare tell me that I’m not alone
Otherwise I wouldn’t have spent years pretending I’m okay
Surrounded by people who pretended to care
And trying to shove the emptiness away.
Don’t you dare tell me that I’m not alone
Because when I needed someone to stand by me, no one was there.
I was alone
And thinking about how much you really care.
Don’t you dare tell me that I’m not alone
Because I know everybody judges before thinking twice
Eyes threatening me every way
Instead of offering help or advice.
Don’t you dare tell me that I’m not alone
Otherwise I would not hate myself so much
And think everybody else hates me too
Since I’m not deserving of love of any such.
Don’t you dare tell me that I’m not alone
Because I don’t trust you- I trust no one.
I just want to be anyone else.
And I feel so alone, so broken.
Don’t you dare tell me that I’m not alone
Because I know that I’m alone as I sit here at 3:50 am every night
Promising myself things will be better time and time again
And knowing each time I am never right.
Poem by Rachel Year 8
I ran
Up the stairs
Till my legs gave out
All alone again
I never had anyone to begin with
But for some reason
The loneliness hit me
Harder than ever before
The lights in the building
Started flickering
Like it was telling me not
To do it
I reached the top of the
Tallest building i could find
Bursting through the roof
door
I stood at the edge
Nobody would care
If I was gone
There was no point
Of going on
They had left me
Made fun of me
Broken me to the
point of no return
I felt the weight
of shackles
How to get rid of them
I don’t know
The wind flowed
Right through me
I’m all alone
And I will always be
I let myself fall
Who knows
Maybe in my next life
I won’t be so lonely
Goodbye world
*It’s alright to be alone, as long as you don’t feel lonely. Always remember to reach out to somebody before it’s too late, because if not, you might never know what could’ve been.*
