Poetry reflecting life's journey

Hi

Welcome to my new site.

 I hope that you will find this site informative and that you will gain some insight into living with a mental illness. I believe my work here reflects hope whilst also recognising the devastating affects that mental distress has upon peoples live's.

My name is Sue Holt I am a poet/author who also has manic depression/bipolar disorder. I have been successful in working in collaboration on one book, looking at mental health and spirituality andI have had two collections of poetry published. I live in the North of England with my husband and teenage son.

Writing for me began as a purely cathartic "tool" helping me to express my pain, over time it has by it's own natural process become so much more. I believe that my words will connect and enable other people similar to myself to move forward and develop hope. I believe that God has instilled within me that gift.

I have spent many years in and out of psychiatric hospitals, underpinned by the fact that I was sexually abused as a child. I felt hopeless, worthless and totally unlovable. I had a amazing son and a adorable husband but even they were unable to salve my pain.

In 1999 I was admitted to hospital for six months, it became one of the turning points in my life, I came out with the urge to write. I wrote about my past, my feelings towards my parents, about myself, about my mental illness and my new relationship with God.

Eventually “Poems of Survival” was published, as I held the first copy it felt surrealI .

“Poems of Survival” has helped me to move away from the shame of my childhood and the taboo of mental illness,

My words will impact upon others, inspiring them, giving them hope. 

I recognise that people are not necessarily inspired by my more positive verses, but the ones in “Poems of Survival” that reveal my pain, the vulnerability of being human leads to their acceptance of their own potential.