By: Lesley Hooper

This is a poem about when you have been in mental health recovery and it get’s dark again and not to give up.

1st Place · Adult Writing (2023)

Don’t give up

Don’t give up, I mustn’t give up

Don’t look back, forward is the motion.

Don’t think, just do.

Who am I kidding?

Lost in thought most days

Unable to find that anchor in the sea

Not knowing which way is up

Knowing recovery is not linear

Been here before

Lost my way before

Lost my vision of life

Lost me in the chaos

Hope is a four letter word right now

Love is distant memory past

Peace is replaced by anxiety

I didn’t come this far for this

They say be a phoenix and rise

Yet is the fire too much

There seems to be no rise

There has to be a new birth

Don’t give up, I mustn’t give up

It doesn’t have to go where it has before

I mustn’t give in to the fear

Hope will come again.