Category: Emotional Health

Shoeboxes in the Heart

Judith Staff

There are alcoves in our hearts Hollowed and laying vacant, ours to fill Like boxes which new shoes once came in, Now housing old photographs and mementos Stowed far under the bed, wrapped in shadows. Those shoeboxes, dusty-lidded and hushed, just sit Waiting. So are the heart-spaces, unobtrusively holding our Read more

Judith Staff

Judith Staff’s background is in teaching and early years education. She still teaches occasionally, though now her main focus is in child welfare and safeguarding children. Her work includes delivering training, presenting at conferences, and engaging in collaborative projects with schools around child abuse awareness and sexual violence prevention. She enjoys writing blogs and poetry on topics she feels passionate about. Judith loves running, gym classes and karate. She is married to an art lecturer and they live in Northamptonshire, England with their three free-spirited children, a 12- year-old son, and daughters aged 11 and 9.

I Quit, Bitches!

Dave Pasquel

It is fucking impossible to work with Bethany. Instead of being a team player, she’s an ego-driven, self-serving, arrogant, superficial little floozy. She regularly empowers herself to bulldoze over me by hijacking my responsibilities and compromising my professional reputation. In fact, she purposely intimidates everyone on the team by bullying Read more

Leaving

Mary Penner

I pull up to the stop sign Will I change my mind? I have done this before And returned once more I sit for a while and stare Remembering the care You so seldom gave You were always so angry Time and time again I made excuses back then Hateful Read more

Mary Penner

Mary Penner has written poetry since the age of ten. She has always enjoyed telling human interest stories through rhyme and has recently begun writing stories in prose form. For twenty-five, Mary was a social worker and educator specializing in family and school counseling. She taught in elementary schools and in universities where she designed and facilitated the Program Planning Course. Mary's poems have been published in three anthologies: including two of Polar Expressions Collections of Canadian Poetry: Let's Fly Away, in 2017; Overture, in 2016. Mary is also a contributing Author in We are the Wordsmiths: A Collection of Short Stories and Poetry, 2017 (Albatross Publishing). Also in 2017, Mary was one of the adjudicators of the South Simcoe Arts Council's Creative Works Writing Contest. Most recently, Mary wast the Audience Prompter in the play Saving Grace: A Victorian Melodrama by a fellow Wordsmith member.

Self-Care and the Art of Blending In

Richard DeFino

The word recovery has always frightened me when it came to my own mental health. How do I recover from something that is with me for the rest of my life? When I was first made aware that I had a mental illness at 17 years old, I spent the Read more

Richard DeFino

Ricky De Fino grew up in New York City and currently resides in Buffalo NY. When he isn’t writing about his anxiety and his crazy Bronx upbringing, he enjoys watching countless hours of television with his wife Andrea, cat Bebe and dog Zeke. Two years sober, good coffee and veganism keeps him sane. His work can be found in Two Cities Review, tNY Press, Purple Pig Lit, Dialougal and Cycatrix Press.

The Day After

Christina Strigas

The sun is in my hair it feels gothic to send black hearts yet truthful. You have gone blocked the rain from touching my skin. You came and went in this caffeine rush not reading the menu nor my frazzled mind. All these nonsensical words lined up in disarray for Read more

Christina Strigas

Christina Strigas is an author and poet, raised by Greek immigrants, who has written four poetry books. Her poetry book LOVE & VODKA was featured by CBC Books in, “Your Ultimate Canadian Poetry List: 68 Poetry Collections Recommended by you.” Her most recent poetry book, LOVE & METAXA, has garnered positive reviews, including Pank Magazine. Strigas’s poems have appeared in Montreal Writes, Feminine Collective, Neon Mariposa Magazine, Pink Plastic House Journal, BlazeVOX, Thimble Lit Magazine, Twist in Time Literary Magazine, The Temz Review, and Coffin Bell Journal, among others. Her poem, “Dead Wife” was nominated for best of the net 2020. In Spring 2022, she will be releasing her fifth poetry book by Free Lines Press, a French indie magazine that publishes experimental poetry. Twitter: @christinastriga Instagram : @c.strigas_sexyasspoet Facebook: Christina Strigas Author

Chasing the Sun

Jacqueline Cioffa

Don’t look down at your feet The answers won’t magically appear On some tiny telephone screen with videos buzzing megabytes and wasted seconds A billion unknown faces The unfamiliar bizarre millennial Scrolling fast and furious Thunderstorms and lightening threaten Look up and out and dig deep Go ahead look all Read more

Jacqueline Cioffa

A retired, international model, and celebrity makeup artist. Co-Author of Model Citi Zen, the guide. Founder of http://modelcitizenmakeup.blogspot.com/. Author of numerous prose pieces in various literary magazines. Most recently published in Little Episodes Brainstorms the anthology, among esteemed artists Sadie Frost, Melvin Burgess and Todd Swift.

Who, you?

Mika Durrant

“Who, you!?” She exclaimed with a gasp, After I told her, I too, felt out of place Under watchful gazes in the tattoo parlor People seemingly made of other stuff.   “But you’re so… you know, cool!” I wondered when, this face had become seen as such. The face kept Read more

Mika Durrant

Since childhood, Mika Durrant has seen the world through an artistic lens. From words to images, many creative mediums have been her tools for expression. She lives and works in Southern California, slowly being driven mad by two wily cats.