Things I want to say...
The power of poetry
A bit about me:
This is a bit weird, I don’t really know how to introduce myself, I guess
I’ll start with the fact that my name is Kelly Churchill, I am 24 years old
and live in Leeds. I’ve lived in a few different places, including Belfast
but was born and raised in Essex. I love Leeds but as the saying goes, you
can take the girl out of Essex but you can’t take the Essex out of the girl!
My favourite colour is pink (but it’s forever changing) and I love anything
celestial and space related, hence the cover of my book, and my hobbies are
spread across a range of different activities but are all creativity based,
things such as crocheting, baking, drawing and obviously, writing poetry. I
also love reading, my collection of books is ever growing.
My current career goal is to work within mental health, however this hasn’t
always been the case, I have qualifications in childcare and studied
hospitality and catering at GCSE level, you could probably say I’m the jack
of all trades but master of none.
Inspiration behind my book:
Throughout my years at school I was always fascinated by English, it was my
favourite subject, it was during these lessons that my love of poetry
blossomed, I even won a poetry competition and had my poem published
alongside other students in the area.
In 2022 I was experiencing a decline in my mental health and subsequently was
moved into supported living to help me gain my independence, and the support
workers encouraged me to think about publishing my book and once that little
seed was planted, it didn’t stop growing. So technically it was their idea,
and after lots of hard work and reading my poems to anyone who would listen,
the book came to life.
The link between poetry & wellbeing:
Over the years I found poetry to be a good way of getting my thoughts out
onto paper in a non-directive and creative way. Finding different metaphors
to describe what was going on inside my brain allowed me to understand and
process certain events going on in my life. It gave me a voice when I was
unable to verbalise the thoughts I was having.
A few years ago my life was changed in ways that were never in my realm of
possibilities, but nevertheless it did and it was a lot to come to terms
with. So after a few years break I found myself once again turning to poetry
to allow myself the freedom to express myself and, again, it helped calm my
mind and helped me express myself. Since then I haven’t stopped, it’s been
the one constant thing I could rely on.
For me, poetry helps my mental wellbeing as it allows me to have a creative
outlet, and it’s been shown that the likes of art therapy also does the same
thing for other people. I think that poetry, to me, is a lot like art therapy
in that it allows me to find another way of getting my feelings out onto
paper.
However, it’s not just writing poetry that can help, I’ve also found that
reading poetry can provide the same comfort, I have quite the poetry
collection myself. My hope is that my book can provide comfort to other
people, more than it just being a personal accomplishment; I wanted to give
people a way of finding some semblance of hope within my poems; a feeling
that they’re not so alone in this world.
Finding favourites…
I’m often asked what my favourite poem is but in all honesty, it’s always
changing, it all comes down to how I’m feeling or what has happened that day.
I have a few favourite authors, including Courtney Peppernel and Rupi Kaur. I
find their books are easy to read and I can relate to their words.
In terms of my own book, it’s hard to choose, as cliche as it is, I love all
of them. I wouldn’t have published anything I wasn’t 100% happy with so
choosing a favourite is incredibly hard, however I think the wording of the
first poem is my favourite, but I also like the ones dedicated to my friends
because they remind me that I have met some amazing people on this journey.
My time at Alexander House:
It’s honestly difficult to summarise my time at Alexander House as I could go
on for ages about how much it’s helped me and no one has time to read that,
it would probably constitute a new book!
I often get asked how I find being at Alexander House, and the one thing I
always say is that it has quite literally changed my life. Every staff member
I have met has gone above and beyond to provide the support that I’ve needed,
and have gotten me through some incredibly difficult times. They have always
been there to help me and I have made so much more progress than I thought
was possible, I sometimes forget that, well okay… I forget it ALOT of the
time but looking back at where I was when I first moved in it becomes really
obvious.
I often think that staff are like personal cheerleaders as they have
been nothing other than encouraging and supportive. It’s so hard to explain
just how much of an impact they have had on my life and the way I view myself
and the world, don’t get me wrong there has been no magic wand and I still
struggle but I know they are there to help me. I have only gained positive
things by being here.
So… What’s next?
That’s a hard question to answer as no one can predict the future, however in
terms of my poetry, I am hoping to release a second book at some point in the
next year or so and am currently planning a poetry reading event.
In terms of other projects I have going on, I’m in the process of producing a
wellbeing meets bullet journal workbook for clients of community links with
the intention of making it available to a wider audience in the future. I’m
hoping to cover all bases when it comes to everything a person may need to
help them in their mental wellbeing journey. There’ll be the opportunity to
have it completely customised too. It’s still undergoing production but keep
your eyes peeled for that if it’s something you’re interested in I guess.
So yeah, there’s a few things in the pipeline but nothing set in stone as of
yet.
You can purchase ‘Things I Want to Say’ here: https://amzn.eu/d/e9RCiQ8