Introduction Foreword Writing Together Coping Within The System Coping On My Own Coping With Teenagers Coping With Relationships Live Performance

Caroline Simmonds

Tea Time

Waiting for the kettle to boil
Can harbour or predict many things
And gives me a chance to forget myself for a time
Singing ‘I believe in a love that’s true’
Knowing there will be another cup later
Or tomorrow

Custard creams I like to eat
They were my Grandfather’s treat
Are young girls still eating them at school?
They are certainly no fools regarding a biscuit
I still enjoy teatime today, hooray!
I’d certainly know if I’d missed it.

 

Caroline is part of the Hearing Voices Group in East Sussex. She had a breakdown when she went to university and was admitted to psychiatric hospital complaining of voices in her head: ‘my voices comment on what’s around me; you know, so and so thinks this about you and so and so said that. They still comment, to this day.’

We talked in the group about the way this poem expresses the importance of routines.