Dear LCC Community: Awareness about the pervasiveness of mental health struggles, especially among young people is growing. September includes Suicide Awareness and Prevention Week and October is National Depression and Mental Health Screening Month. The Music Program at LCC is inviting students to lend their voices to a community-building project related to the song “Please Stay” and its messages of understanding, hope, determination, and connection. Please take some time to share your responses to the prompts in this Google Form link: (deleted) Your submissions are totally anonymous. There are no right or wrong ways to respond, although the more specific language you use the better. Your responses will be used as part of the LCC Community-Generated Poetry Project, to craft poems surrounding the concepts in “Please Stay” in order to let all our voices be heard. Thank you for taking the time to share your ideas, and let your own voice be heard.
Asking someone to stay…
- What does the title of the song “Please Stay” mean to you? What does the song hope to do?
- What is the “storm” in the line “the storm is strong, but it will pass”?
- Imagine you are singing this song to a friend or family member struggling with depression. What do you want them to hear?
- Write a line or two to add to this song.
- When you sing this song to someone struggling with depression, your voice becomes a _________ and then it ________.
Our own mental health journeys…
- If depression were an animal, it would be a _______ because ______.
- Choosing to live can be an act of courage because_________.
- When I talk about my feelings with others, my feelings become…
- What helps you to “stay”?
- What might you add to the Twitter thread: #IKeptLiving?
Lyrics of “Please Stay” by Jake Runestead (Text adapted from tweets using #IKeptLiving — expressions of hope from those who battle depression and chose to live. Link to composer’s website: jakerunestad.com/store/please-stay/)
Please Stay
No! Don’t go!
Don’t let your worst day be your last.
The storm is strong, but it will pass.
You think you can’t go on another day,
but please stay. Just stay.
Hope is real. Help is real.
You are breath, you are life,
you are beauty, you are light.
Your story is not over.
You are not a burden to anyone.
Please stay. Just stay.
“Please Stay” Poetry Project Community-Generated Poems (Fall 2021)
Original prompt: If depression were an animal it would be a ______ because _____.
Poets: James Campbell, Barb Clauer, Melissa Kaplan, Josie Sebastian, Jon TenBrink
Depression Is…
Depression is a predator:
a snake, a lion, a shark, a raptor.
It follows you everywhere
and swallows you whole;
it’s constantly circling
waiting for its opening to pounce.
Lurking in the shadows,
it sneaks up, attacks without warning.
It rises to the surface, coiling tighter and tighter
then picks you to pieces
revealing its weight left on your chest
Depression is a parasite:
a tick, a leech, a mosquito.
It’s deceptive and tricky and
doesn’t always appear threatening
but eats you from within,
quietly, telling you the things you
don’t want to hear,
slowly draining your life, while
remaining unseen and unknown to others.
Out of nowhere
it will find you, sting you, hurt you.
Eventually it moves on, but a
a scar remains so it knows where to return.
Depression is an angler fish
existing in the dark, cold, crushing, lonely depths.
It’s a polar bear, whose world is
constantly falling apart
through no fault of its own.
It’s a chameleon letting you smile
on the outside while suffering inside.
Depression is a fish in a bowl,
trapped, swimming in circles in your head.
It’s a bat: misunderstood
and more common than we know.
Depression is a phoenix:
struggling to rise from the ashes,
courageously persevering
through cycles of
pain
destruction
& rebirth.
Original prompt: Choosing to live can be an act of courage because_________.
Poets: Judy Allen, Barb Clauer, Layne Ingram, Tami McDiarmid, Susan Murphy, Felipe Sustaita, Jon Ten Brink
The Battle and the War
Suicide Haiku: Losing the Battle
Living’s hard. Death’s not.
Life’s fucking hard all the time.
Not all win the fight.
Living as an Act of Courage: Winning the War
Living is the hardest thing to do in life.
It takes strength and stamina.
Even when you’re empty
or hopeless, your persistence can
be a light to someone suffering.
The only parts of life that are easy
are inconsequential things:
setting down a pen; walking one step more.
Perseverance is an act of courage;
refusing to give up is much harder than giving up.
It can be scary to keep fighting
as it requires a leap of faith
to believe that tomorrow,
or even the next moment, will get better.
Facing your fears and dealing with your mistakes
daily is a struggle. It’s an act of courage.
Choosing to live means battling the demons
that rise up, to take you down to the depths,
like weights tied to your feet.
Fighting to swim to the surface:
that takes courage.
It’s brave to face the unknown & push through.
There’s triumph in choosing to live
because it means you have survived
100% of your bad days
on this group project that is Earth.
Original prompt: What is the “storm” in the line “the storm is strong, but it will pass”?
Poets: James Campbell, Barb Clauer, Melissa Kaplan, Josie Sebastian
The Storm
Like a storm building on the horizon,
clouds gathering into a thunderhead,
depression is despair that moves from
unremarkable to unbearable.
The storm rolls over you in waves
a chaotic, endless darkness, a sea of vast lostness.
It pulls you to the low point of a panic attack,
persists as relentless anxiety, or an eating disorder.
The turbulence of thoughts surges
into a tsunami of negative emotions
that makes it seem like life is not worth living.
But storms have purpose, and they pass.
Don’t let your worst day be your last.
Original prompt: Imagine you are singing this song to a friend or family member struggling with depression. What do you want them to hear?
Poets: Judy Allen, Barb Clauer, Layne Ingram, Melissa Kaplan, Tami McDiarmid, Susan Murphy, Felipe Sustaita, Jon Ten Brink
Stay
Please stay.
This moment is just a blip in time:
you are breath, you are life
you are beauty, you are light.
If you leave, you’ll never see
the brilliance you created
just by your existence.
You are enough.
You are worthy of life.
I love you. I love you. I love you.
And if that isn’t enough,
you are so much more than my love for you:
you are the wind and the ocean and the stars.
You have the strength
to swim through stormy waters,
make it to shore and
leave your footprints on the ground,
to show others your journey.
Your story is not over;
you are not a burden to anyone.
Your pain and hurt is real and raw, but
your life has infinite, irreplaceable value.
Nothing could fill the void left behind.
Hope is real; help is real.
Instead of asking why, let the anguish
wash over you and wash away.
Happiness cannot exist without pain.
The storm is strong, yet will pass;
I will help pull you through.
Your story has just begun:
I love you
I love you
I love you
Original prompt: When you sing this song to someone struggling with depression, your voice becomes a _________ and then it ________.
Poets: Judy Allen, Barb Clauer, Layne Ingram, Melissa Kaplan, Tami McDiarmid, Susan Murphy, Felipe Sustaita, Jon Ten Brink
Hear my Voice
When you are in pain, let my voice be
a haven that holds space for you,
and then a key, opening new pathways to
glimmering, whispering hope.
When you feel despair, let my voice be
a seed planted in your heart,
and the sun that shines
to sprout and germinate it with life.
When you are in shadow, let my voice be
a light in the dark that bursts into sparks,
a star that shines through the veil.
Let it echo and inspire.
When you are lost, let my voice be
a beacon on the shore, a lifeline
pulling you into a channel of emotions
flowing into a vessel that holds you safe.
