70 Stories
70 Stories is an online project curated by the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival to mark the 70th anniversary of the Mental Health Foundation.
The project connects stories from our Writing Competition, stories from SMHAF participants, and more in a compelling portrait of mental health in 2019.
Keep an eye on this page for new entries in the series. If you are connected in some way to SMHAF or the Mental Health Foundation and would like to contribute a piece of writing to this project, please contact aeaton-lewis@mentalhealth.org.uk.
#1 The Imagined We
For the first entry in our 70 Stories collection, poet Jenny Lindsay, a regular participant in SMHAF since 2015, shares a new film poem.
#2 Outside In
‘She had been there on a Wednesday. If he didn’t go now, he would never go. If she wasn’t there, well … every sun has to set.’
#3 Still Hingin Oan
“can you hear me / whit-dae-ye-ma-call-it / ehm, thingmy / aye, ahm feelin terrible”
#4 In Sync
‘I’m crying cos I feel like everything’s different, like I’ve lost something. And I’m crying cos I’ve found something. I’m crying cos I know things now.’
#5 Message in a Bottle
‘She sees him strike a match, can almost hear the hiss of the flame. He lights the corner of the paper and lets it float into the air.’
#6 Shoormal
‘I love the salt edge in your smile, the lilt in your voice, like a song.’
#7 Hysteria!
‘Those rose tinted glasses are cracked now, aren’t they?’
#8 I Am
‘Valuing our stories helps us to learn to value ourselves.’
#9 Under Pressure
‘He imagined those beautiful men touching each other’s hair and holding hands.’
#10 I’m Doing My Best
‘You stared past me, hiding behind those heavy curtains.’
#11 Affirmations
‘You’re all so relentlessly positive. I can’t bear it.’
#12 Electrolyte
“This small world, these small minds, with small dreams that are not mine. I need more than what you want. I need more than this.”
#13 Alarm
‘He stood close to the edge of the platform, past the yellow line, stooping slightly. You know I follow my instincts. Well, my instinct was that I needed to talk to him as quickly as possible.’
#14 A Letter to My Younger Self
“Hi there. I know things haven’t been going so well / you fell / and don’t know how to get back up”
#15 Fragments
‘My heart broke as I left your warm embrace; it continues to bleed.’
#16 Twenty Five, Vanilla Milkshake
‘Otto’s laughing, telling himself a story. And his eyes flicker behind his glasses smeared with dandruff and dust.’
#17 The Keeper of the Keys
‘I escape down a cobbled alley where graffiti artists have practised their art in pyrotechnic snarls.’
#18 A Moment
‘A pair, connected. Then the train rumbled out of the station.’
#19 Goosegrass
‘There is nothing so tender as a mouse, upon the hand of a child, heart beating.’
#20 We Are All On This Platform Together
‘We are all still afraid of the dark sometimes. Why wouldn’t we be?’
#21 All Of This Is Ordinary
‘All of this is ordinary. / Do not mistake that for normal.’
#22 There Is No Armour That Can Defend Us Now
‘When I was a child I was born into a wounded world.’
#23 A Way From Rage
‘Take time to tend / Before the rot sets in / Before the root and stem fall to ruin / And don’t pretend that all is forgiven…’
#24 Reality Check
‘I remember when sometimes I lived; when I inhabited life.’