MHI: IN SPITE OF IT by Lucy A. Snyder

Trigger Warning: This piece addresses mental health

The HWA is pleased to launch its Mental Health Initiative, a coordinated roll-out of events, resources, and activities intended to promote positive mental health, foster the concept of hope, and challenge the stigma of mental illness in the horror genre. The initiative, run by the organization’s Wellness Committee, launches in June, and includes the following blog posts from Of Horror and Hope, a downloadable anthology of poems, flash fiction, and personal reflections on mental health by HWA members.

IN SPITE OF IT
Lucy A. Snyder

A friend asked me how
I can still create in the face
of our constant crushing dismay
at seeing women harassed, gaslit,
witchburnt, doxxed, cast aside?

And I replied that I still create
because if I stop…then what?
I will be miserable. The bullies
and creeps will keep being rotten.
Why shouldn’t I stick to my keys?

I want you to write, my friend.
If you can’t write for pleasure,
I want you to write for spite.

Spill the truth from your fevered head,
and to hell with all the gatekeepers
and all the naysayers who whisper
that your soul’s joy is not enough.

And if you can’t find that joy,
I want you to attack the page
as if it’s been your cruel jailer
for 20 long, hard-labor years
and in the cell you just found
power and freedom in the form
of a nice, sharp, sturdy knife.