Cliff Face Calling

mindshare was recipient of Arts SA’s Strategic Community Partnership: Community Grant for 2014 working with the Media Resource Centre and Access 2 Arts. As part of this project mindshare invited poets, writers and individuals with lived experience of a mental health issue to submit poetry to a competition called When words come to life.

Our judge Jude Aquilina then selected 8 poems from a diverse range of applicants which were turned into digital stories during a workshop run by the Media Resource Centre.

Aaron Furnell was one of the selected poets with his poem ‘Cliff Face Calling’, this is his story.

Cliff face calling by Aaron Furnell

Deep dank crevices mark the face
Of a boy who’s dreams fly
Away on smoke scarred wind.
Tis not a breeze that carries these
But a gale far too strong.
He battens down the hatches
As torrential rain caresses his cheeks
Bucketing down from abysmal clouds
That sit in the corners of his hazel eyes
Cloudy grey they seem
Formed from a polluted youth
He sang the song to bring the downpour
Amongst the raves and gigs
Amongst his craven sins
And yet the light beams down
Beckoning him to come up again.
He knows the chemical romance
Is nought but lusty.
True friends and family
Prop this man up on a savage cliff
To do it all again.
This face is mine
For I am him.

Short film produced as part of the When words come to life project between mindshare and the Media Resource Centre.