Tag Archives: poetry

Find Your Creative Voice with SHARP Gallery Drawing Club and Winter Exhibition

By Matthew McKenzie FRSA BEM

I’m pleased to share two creative opportunities from SHARP Art Gallery: a new term of its online Drawing Club and an invitation to contribute to its winter exhibition, The Philosophy of Evergreen.

Through my work with unpaid carers and poetry groups, I value opportunities for people to express themselves without pressure. Sometimes words come easily; at other times, a drawing, a colour or an image can offer another way to explore what we are feeling.

These opportunities may interest carers, people with lived experience of mental health difficulties, and anyone looking for time to be creative.

The Drawing Club returns this November

SHARP Gallery’s Drawing Club offers an online space to relax, draw and explore your creativity. Whether you want to find your voice through drawing or simply set aside some time for yourself, you are welcome to take part.

There is no need to have attended previous terms. Each session stands alone, so newcomers can join this term.

Sessions include:

Time and space to spend drawing.
An optional drawing prompt for inspiration.
An optional technique to try.
An optional theme to guide your work.

The emphasis is on having an opportunity to create, with suggestions available if you would find them helpful.

Dates and how to join

All sessions take place on Microsoft Teams, from 2–3:30 pm, on the following Tuesdays:

3 November 2026
10 November 2026
17 November 2026
24 November 2026
1 December 2026
8 December 2026

Places are free. To book, scan the booking QR code on the Drawing Club flyer or email Anna-Maria.Amato@slam.nhs.uk for booking and joining details.

Anna-Maria explains that the group is for anyone who feels art could help with their mental health. Please share the flyer with someone who might appreciate the opportunity.

The Philosophy of Evergreen exhibition open call

SHARP Gallery is also inviting expressions of interest for its winter exhibition:

The Philosophy of Evergreen — What do we retain in a world of impermanence?

It is a theme that opens up many possibilities. What stays with us when circumstances change? Perhaps a memory, a relationship, a cultural tradition, a sense of identity or something we have learned about ourselves.

For unpaid carers, it might prompt reflection on the parts of ourselves we hold onto through changing caring responsibilities. These are simply possible starting points; contributors can explore their own response to the exhibition’s question.

To express an interest in exhibiting, email Anna-Maria.Amato@slam.nhs.uk with an image or an idea of what you would like to submit.

The deadline is Friday 27 November 2026.

The exhibition is planned to run from the third week of December 2026 until mid-February 2027. Contact Anna-Maria for further information about submissions and arrangements.

More creative opportunities for carers

In her update, Anna-Maria also shared that SHARP Gallery held its first workshop for carers at my Carer event in October and is planning further sessions.

There are also plans for an exhibition of carers’ artwork, alongside an award-winning piece by a carers’ advocate. Carers interested in these opportunities can contact Anna-Maria directly to find out more.

I’m pleased to see creative spaces being developed where carers can contribute their own ideas and experiences. Alongside the responsibilities of caring, having time to make something for ourselves can be valuable.

Find out more

For Drawing Club bookings, exhibition enquiries or information about future carer workshops, contact:

Anna-Maria Amato
Curator, SHARP Art Gallery
Email: Anna-Maria.Amato@slam.nhs.uk

You can also find out more about the gallery at:
https://slam.nhs.uk/sharp-gallery

Thank you to Anna-Maria and SHARP Gallery for sharing these opportunities. Please pass them on to carers, friends and community groups who may be interested.

Creativity as the Expression – Poem 41: Finding a Voice Through Poetry

How do we explain our caring experiences when the words used in meetings, assessments and care plans do not quite capture what we want to say?

My latest PCREF poetry video, “Creativity as the Expression”, reflects on this question. It is Poem 41 from my upcoming poetry book, Unpaid, Unseen and Yet Unbroken, which explores the experiences of ethnic minority unpaid mental health carers.

When the words are difficult to find

As an unpaid carer, there can be times when you know what you have witnessed and understand what worries you, yet struggle to explain it in the language expected by services.

You might leave a meeting thinking about everything you wanted to say. The emotional weight of caring, family history and the everyday changes you notice do not always fit neatly into an assessment or a short conversation.

This poem begins with that struggle:

I struggle to speak the clinical language
I stumble on that path
but over the years I found a new way to express myself
Using that creativity as expression

For me, poetry offers space to find those words and express them in my own way.

Writing to cope, express and reveal

Writing gives me time to reflect on experiences that can be difficult to speak about. It allows feelings, memories and questions to take shape without the pressure of having to explain everything at once.

In the poem, I describe poetry as an art that helps me stay whole. That matters because carers also need opportunities to express who we are and how caring affects us.

Our creativity can reveal parts of our lives that others may never see during a meeting.

Reclaiming our own stories

Carers are often described through records, professional conversations and decisions made within services. Having the opportunity to tell our own stories matters.

“Creativity as the Expression” explores that wish to make the caring role visible and reclaim the narrative. Poetry allows us to speak from our own standpoint, using words that carry meaning for us.

It can also open a conversation. A poem may help someone pause, ask a question or recognise an experience they had not previously understood.

A connection to PCREF

My PCREF poetry work draws attention to the voices of ethnic minority unpaid mental health carers. PCREF stands for the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework.

Through this poem, I want to encourage reflection on whose voices are heard and which forms of expression are valued. Confidence with professional language should not determine how seriously a carer’s experience is taken.

The poem imagines creativity as a bridge: a way to communicate experiences that might otherwise be difficult to explain or record. For that bridge to work, there must also be a willingness to listen.

One voice can become many

The final verse moves from personal expression towards community:

My creativity will reveal that experience
My lived experience
I will share it back to others
Back to the community, where one voice can become many

Sharing a poem can help another carer recognise something from their own life. It can create a moment of connection and give others encouragement to share their experiences too.

I hope this video offers that invitation.

Watch the poem below, and please like, share and subscribe to A Caring Mind for more poetry and unpaid carer voices.

Watch “Creativity as the Expression” on YouTube

Please also keep an eye out for my upcoming poetry book, Unpaid, Unseen and Yet Unbroken.

Has poetry, art, music or another creative activity helped you express your caring experience? You are welcome to share your thoughts in the comments.

Becoming a Human Book at the DUALITY Event – The Carer They Didn’t See

By Matthew McKenzie – Carer Activist and Carer Advocate

On 8 September 2026, I had the honour of attending the DUALITY event at King’s College London, held at Bush House.

The event was a research and public/community engagement event connected to the INTERCEPTION study, based in King’s Department of Global Health & Social Medicine, within the School of Global Affairs / Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy.

There was a packed agenda, which I have shown below.

Registration, refreshments and photo exhibition — Attendees arrived, had refreshments and had an opportunity to look around the community photography exhibition.
Welcome and introduction to DUALITY — The organisers introduced the event and its focus on ageing, ethnicity, health and experiences of living with multiple long-term conditions.
Research Panel: Ethnicity, Ageing and Health — Researchers discussed work exploring inequalities and experiences at the intersection of ethnicity, ageing, health and multiple long-term conditions.
King’s Sport & Wellness energiser — Attendees were invited to take part in accessible seated stretches and movement exercises.
Human Library — Attendees could “borrow” Living Books for short conversations, hearing personal stories intended to build understanding, foster empathy and challenge assumptions. My Living Book was “The Carer They Didn’t See.”
Community information booths — Organisations and community representatives provided information and resources. This was also where I supported the Carers UK stall.
DUALITY Photography Exhibition — Photographs used visual storytelling to explore support, health, ageing and lived experience. My photograph “The Carer They Didn’t See” was included in the exhibition.
Photography Competition Awards — Winners of the DUALITY Photography Competition were announced, with “The Carer They Didn’t See” selected as one of the winning entries.
Creative performance — The programme included a creative lived-experience performance exploring identity, Caribbean heritage, racism, family, memory and culture.
Keeping Fit with Multiple Long-Term Conditions — This discussion brought professional and lived-experience perspectives together to explore chronic conditions, exercise, confidence and wellbeing.
Dinner and networking — The evening concluded with food and an opportunity for attendees, researchers, community groups and people with lived experience to connect.

This was quite a different event for me. I have attended many conferences, workshops and involvement events over the years as an unpaid carer, carer advocate and speaker. This time, however, I wasn’t simply attending or presenting.

Continue reading →

Today I Prayed: A PCREF Spoken Word Poem

By Matthew McKenzie – Chair of ethnic mental health carer forum.

For my latest spoken word video, “Today I Prayed,” I present a piece from my PCREF poetry collection that I am working on, Unpaid, Unseen and Yet Unbroken.

Grounded in the spirit of the Patient Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF), this poem centers on the often hidden realities faced by unpaid Black mental health carers.

The poem explores spirituality not just as a source of private comfort and endurance, but as a solitary lifeline when formal systems fail and the heavy emotional weight of duty takes its toll.

I think watching this video is an invitation to witness the quiet strength of minority carers, plus raise awareness of systemic gaps in our care frameworks.

I hope the poem ensures that these vital carer voices are finally seen, heard, and respected.

Our Stories Matter – Poem by Matthew McKenzie #PCREF

Stories are powerful. They carry memory, experience, and truth in ways that forms and systems often cannot. For unpaid minority carers, our stories are not just reflections, they are essential to understanding the full picture of care.

I’ve recently shared a poem, “Our Stories Matter,” from my upcoming poetry book. It explores the importance of lived experience, intergenerational memory, and the voices that are too often overlooked within health and social care systems.

While assessments, care plans, and clinical notes tell part of the story, they rarely capture the depth of what families and carers experience every day. Our stories provide context. They bring meaning and complete the picture.

This is especially important within the context of PCREF, where recognising lived experience and cultural understanding is key to improving care and addressing inequalities. When carers’ voices are not heard, something vital is missing.

This poem is a reminder that our stories are central.

🎥 Watch “Our Stories Matter” here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sVie4YSdbc

On Caring – Carer awareness poem by Matthew McKenzie

Welcome back to another blog post by Carer activist, poet and author Matthew McKenzie. As you can guess by most of my post off this site, I raise awareness of those providing unpaid care to someone.

Even though I have written a few books containing poems about the caring role. There will be times I will just come out with the odd poem due to spark of creativitiy. Here is my latest poem to raise awareness of caring for someone living with long term illness. I hope you like it, but if you dont then I hope it provides plenty of discussion.

I am always interested in what people think of my new poem. I am sure to place these poems in another book at a later date. Feel free to comment either in the video or my YouTube channel.

The Power of Poetry to reach carers

Welcome back.

Here is a new blog post from carer activist Matthew McKenzie. I write about the challenges, roles and journeys of those caring for someone. Usually the experience of caring for someone with mental health challenges or someone living with cancer.

However, I find that writing is not enough when trying to connect with others. I find poetry a great way of sharing experiences, creativity and understanding.

There can be challenges of using creativity to explain the experiences of caring. It all becomes worth while in the performance, even if things do not go as expected.

Each person finds the poem will mean something different to them. Just as no carer’s journey is the same, this can be included as to how poems can mean something different.

In order to promote the power of poetry, I have made a short video of my ideas, which you can see below.

In life, whatever we experience will eventually pass and things move so fast that we are left wondering what it was all about. If we can leave something behind, express our experiences, share our thoughts of our existance then we can for a brief moment connect with others.

Thanks for reading.

Spoken Word event at the Haringey Service User & Carer Forum.

Welcome back to a quick update from Carer activist, author and poet Matthew McKenzie. This update is from an event I performed at which was held over the Chestnut Community centre over at Haringey. The event was a spoken word event, which was part of Haringey Service User and Carer Forum.

A quick note is you can actually download poems and listen to songs if you scroll to the end of my update of the spoken word event.

The Haringey Service User and Carer Forum aims to provide a place for past and present service users and carers to learn about new developments and to provide feedback on services.

The forum provides an opportunity for people to discuss their experiences and to share views with staff so that their ideas can help to influence the way services operate. This meeting is organised by Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust.

Barnet Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust provides integrated mental health services in Barnet, Enfield and Haringey, and also provides community health services in Enfield. They look after people’s mental and physical health in hospitals or in the community, and provide a range of mental health services for young people and adults.

So for the 8th of July, I attended the spoken word event hosted by Martin Weegmann who is a Clinical Psychologist & Group Analyst at the mental health trust. We were joined by many who also performed, songs, spoken word, poetry and art.

Some of the art presented at the event, I managed to take some pictures. This was in order to help promote the work by Nicola Newman

You can view more of Nicola’s art at her Instagram page.

https://www.instagram.com/visions.of.balance/

I was joined by Jo Lambert who does poetry to help express mental wellbeing, mental health experiences and also carer experiences. Jo and myself have a poetry circle to help promote carer awareness. You can watch our performance off my YouTube Channel.

We also heard excellent poems, songs and spoken word performed by others at the event. Obviously I could not record them, but I spoke to a few who loved to have their work shared off my blog site.

A number of songs were performed by Victoria Lamb who has her songs hosted off her soundcloud page, which is linked below.

I enjoyed being part of this excellent group that has a focus of community empowerment.

I often try attend the SU forum when I can as Barnet Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust are supportive of my work engaging with carers. I look forward to the next spoken word event.

You can also check out many of the poetry from those with lived experience from the following book which can be viewed below.

Preview and download book below

Book – final Download

Thanks for dropping by.

The Poetry book of mental health caring: Special Edition

I have great news regarding my poetry projects. I have now published the special edition of the poetry book of mental health caring.

The audiobook provides poems about the unpaid caring role, quite a few poems focus on what it is like to provide care for someone suffering mental illness.

This audiobook not only has the audio version of some of my older carer poems, but also contributions from unpaid carers around the country. Close to 3 hours of poems.

Thanks to the many carer centres supporting the project.

You can purchase the audiobook via Google Play for £2.40. Here is the screenshot below, where you can listen from your computer, or play the audiobook from your phone or tablet.

The audiobook contains over 100 poems and can be purchases from the link below.

Purchase audiobook version of The Poetry Book of Mental Health Caring

Family and Carers listening event poetry book launch

Here is my latest blog post from my carers website. This site focuses on events, thoughts and awareness of unpaid carers, especially those who care for someone with mental illness or suffering through cancer.

For Carers Week 2024, I was back over at the Maudsley site based in the London borough of Southwark. South London & Maudsely were doing a special follow up event from their Carers conference held last year for 2023. During the conference, many carers contributed to a number of poems which has led to the a carer poetry book.

The carer poetry book event took place over at Maudsleys NHS training and events centre, The Ortus.

Over the years, I have attended many mental health and carer events, including attending meetings and engagement events. It was with great pleasure to attend a poetry book launch which was driven by carers from the boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham and Croydon.

The event was opened by Gabrielle Richards who is the Head of Inclusion, Recover and Professional Head of Occupational Therapy and Allied Health Professionals at South London & Maudsley. Gabrielle also oversees Triangle of Care at the NHS mental health trust.

Gabrielle was joined by carer Faith Smith and Ann Morgan who led on the ideas for poetry inclusion from carers who attended the Family and Carers listening event

Faith and Ann read a number of poems while commenting on the poetry books development. We also heard from Rob Frowen winner of the 2017 Carer of the Year Award and Chair of Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust Service User and Carer Council.

You can also view Ann reading a poem below.

A large number of carers also took turns to read some poems including carer advocate Brenda.

We were also joined by Carer and poet Jo Lambet and myself who also promoted the importance of poetry and how carers can connect and tell their experiences through creativity. Later on during the event, I spoke about the importance of poetry and how this can help carers relate to each other while exploring their experiences of caring and sharing this with others.

I also did a spoken word section from the poetry book I released in 2023, which is being edited into a new edition to include poems from unpaid carers around the country

You can view the section of myself and Jo performing some poetry and my talk about the importance of including carers to give space to poems.

I enjoyed the carer poetry book launch event and hope the book can make history or at least show how carers over in South London can be included to experess their exprience of care via poetry.