2020: relections, songs, & a poem by emily neblock.

 

My spur-of-the-moment morning thoughts on mental health:

Things pass, somehow, in those difficult moments. What is it we are living for, keeping our eyes set on? What things are our hope, and if we are without it, where can we find it? What things in life are big enough to make the hard things seem like passing clouds? And if we don't have those things... Can we find them?"

—Emily Neblock
Tuesday, October 6, 2020

 

 

I am from
(inspired by the poem "Where I'm From" by George Ella Lyon)

I am from Skinny action figures and Barbie dolls.
In-between empowerment and whoring
Aphids on the conifers, slowly thinning the walls of my hiding places.
I am from the top right room of a yellow house.
It's not yellow anymore, and I'd like to think it remembers, but the siding was replaced instead of painted over.
The light’s on in the top right room,
Crib to twin to queen,
Performing well,
What else is there?
Living hell.
From poring over shel silverstein poems and goodnight moon
To hours eaten by reality tv.
What am I from?
More than one word.
A mockery.
A steep descent into puberty.
A million suns dancing all over the ground.
If they stayed still it would burn.

 

Emily Neblock is a singer-songwriter and artist from near Philadelphia, PA. She plays loving, inquisitive jazzy folk music, which can be found at EmilyNeblock.Bandcamp.com. She also plays in an electric blues-rock band called Hex Highway Blues Band. Updates on this can be found by searching for the "Hex Highway Blues Band" Facebook page.

2020: poems by ruth z. deming.

 

In 2017, Ruth Z. Deming had a creative nonfiction essay about Frank published in an online magazine called Kaleidoscope. We highlighted this on the blog that year.

Ruth has been a dedicated participant in our annual memorial open mics for Frank and always expresses much gratitude for this work we do in his memory and so others can learn from him, so we can all continue learning from him for his own sake and for ourselves in what we have yet to take in through our understanding of who each of us is in this world we share.

She offers some of her poetry via video this year.

Ruth Z Deming, MGPGP, is founder/director of New Directions Support Group, for folks with depression, bipolar disorder and their family members. Visit www.newdirectionssupport.org to learn more. She writes Letters to the Editor to dispel myths about mental health conditions. She has written hundreds of poems and short stories. She lives on a quiet street in Willow Grove, PA, where her art work - made of PVC pipes from Home Depot - graces her lawn.