In Australia we currently lose 6 good people every day to Suicide. Sadly 5/6 are Males!
Suicide Prevention is a place few people dare to go (happily more and more these days), but I am not afraid!!
I have never been Suicidal, but “I know the territory”. I have also been touched through my 60 years by knowing 3 people who Committed Suicide!
If you are a health or health promotion worker, these poems may well be worth a look, particularly for Male Suicide Prevention.
This is what they are written for.
“Suicide Rox” is a general suicide prevention poem which may unsettle some readers. For those not familiar with Australia,
- The ‘Blue Lake’ is a huge volcanic lake filled with the bluest water in my home State of South Australia.
- ‘Lindsay’s Leap’ is the spot where Adam Lindsay Gordon – for a bet- jumped his horse over a guard rail protecting a ‘cliff’ and back, with only a small area on the cliff side to land on.
- ULURU is the huge rock in the centre of Australia.
‘My Gift to You’ is a true story, (on sound) a quintet with graphic images of a Suicide. It is written for both ‘Healing’ and Prevention’.
‘Carrying Danny’ – yet another true suicide story, ‘On Not Going To Funerals’ and “I Just Won’t Give a Fu**” about you either mate” are intended to be read as ‘a series”, although each poem can stand on it’s own.
‘Angel Miss September’ – (On sound) – one of my best and saddest pieces of writing – is a shandy of true Suicide Stories I have heard, which I have had to ‘shandy together’ to protect the names of real people both past and present. I have read this poem on our own ABC radio. I wrote it to highlight the pain of Suicide, both upon the one who does it, and all the people and (in this case) dogs involved!
‘There is a Flower Blooming’ is a universal ‘song’ against the pain of human suffering.
Tim Barritt. 7.4.11.
Earth Angel 181