On Hope and Change

AVATAR2 PPI consultant Amy Grant shares a couple of her most recent poetic creations.

Meet Amy:

Hi! I’m Amy, I am a mental health champion and PPI consultant for the AVATAR2 Trial and based at King’s College London in South London. My role involves attending 1:1 meetings with research assistants. As well as regular group meetings with other PPI consultants where we support the trial in a number of ways. Including reviewing materials to provide constructive feedback and supporting recruitment which concluded at the end of November (target reached!!) Another way PPI members have been brought together on this trial is by the running of a creative workshop. This is a safe space for our inner artists to create and share pieces we have been working on, whether related to mental health or not. I have always loved writing, but this workshop made me feel even more empowered to write poems. Especially by viewing other PPI consultants’ pieces about their own lived experience with mental health and from carer’s perspectives too.

I’d like to share with you a couple of poems I have recently written on hope and change. Along with images I took that I feel are another medium for my creative expression.

MY SATELLITE

Hope is a Moon.

It is always there.

You just experience different Moon phases.

Even when you can’t see it some days.

At times, it will eclipse everything.

Other days, it may feel like a waning crescent.

Maybe yours is always a beautiful full Moon.

It’s okay to feel like you’re down to your last quarter.

Your first quarter can be restored by a ‘Once in a blue moon’ moment.

Observing a new Moon.

Sometimes, we just need the right binoculars or telescope to experience the Moonlight.

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WILD

Change is an animal.

A shape-shifting beast.

A domesticated wolf born wild and unpredictable.

A mysterious egg waiting to hatch.

A horse dressed as a Unicorn.

A chameleon that only likes to be the colour green.

A leopard with painted stripes.

A dog that wanders off but remembers the way home.

A bird you tried to cage but it fashioned its beak into a key and flew away.

Thanks for reading 😊

- Amy Grant