Selected poems from school students’ submissions to the Belongg Writing Contest 2021.
The Glorious Voyage by Sara Jayakumar
This poem was written by Sara Jayakumar, a student of Vasant Valley School, Delhi.
Hello, I’m here to tell you a story,
About my voyage, how I’m here,
Somewhere along the middle I began to worry,
That, not my problems, but I would disappear.
I was only twelve when it started,
The anxiety, the fear,
To me this was all new, uncharted,
It hurt every second, every day, every week, every year.
I couldn’t think or see or breathe,
A wave of panic surged constantly,
This feeling would just not leave me,
I would never know what it was like to be free.
I had to make split-second decisions,
About where I would be later on,
I never got the chance to flesh out the visions,
It was all just a blurry mess, my fear had won.
I was never prepared to leave my room,
The place I knew when all else was faded,
Deadlines always came too soon,
I never knew I would have made it.
I was never happy anymore,
It was always something or the other,
A simple smile became a chore,
Joy was task, I never bothered.
I was getting older now,
My fear was getting stronger,
Happiness, something I never allowed,
My anxiety, skilfully conquered.
At this time I lost all hope,
I took a knife and gently slid it along my shaking arm,
With the pain, I would not have to cope,
Me? I was prone to harm.
My parents didn’t realise I was hurt,
They couldn’t have possibly helped,
I always wore a full-sleeved shirt,
Tears just rolled down, I didn’t scream, never yelped.
I knew this wasn’t the final solution,
Just, an easy way out,
I had to promise myself it would get better, had to make a resolution,
This time I wouldn’t stay quiet, I would scream I’d shout.
I took a better medicine,
A chord on the guitar,
A simple pen, the stroke of a brush,
Became my new companion.
It suddenly seemed better,
It didn’t hurt anymore,
And I didn’t have to live in sweaters,
A smile, no longer a chore.
Hello, I’m here to tell you a story,
About my glorious journey
I’m not that sad anymore, I’m happy now
No need for tears, I’ve got myself now
Be Kind to Your Mind by Aadhya Bharara
This poem was written by Aadhya Bharara, a student of Vasant Valley School, Delhi.
When you think all your energy is drained
And your life seems so puzzled and pained.
When you feel lost and confused
Thinking you’ve been battled and bruised.
All you need to do is breathe
And don’t let the demons pull you underneath.
When you feel trapped in your skin
Feeling broken and burnt within.
When you’re high on emotion
And cannot think of any solution.
What you do is battle through the dark
And strive to find that spark.
When you know there is no such thing as perfection
But still, continue to hate your reflection.
You should know that you’re not alone
And in the end, you will make it home.
You should know that it’s going to be fine
Gather some courage and everything will align.
Every aspect of mental health
Is about finding your strengths
It’s not about words of your pain
But the virtues that you gain
Because conclusively it’s all about being kind
Not just to others, but also to your mind
Generation Z’s Degenerate Mental Health by Ananya H Potty
The poem was written by Ananya H Potty, a student of Bhavan’s Rajaji Vidyashram, Chennai.
A moment of slack, and I’ve gone too far, astray,
Appearing at the house to which I’m always whisked away,
I don’t think to knock, for I’ve been here before,
I’m well aware of what lies behind the creaky door
The lock clicks shut; deafening silence, a pause,
Not knowing why I can’t hear them, I stand still at a loss,
Soon the familiar warble of voices enshroud me,
Familiar arms tackle me; demons whose faces I never see
They tell me what to do, what not to,
They tell me no one admires me, they all think of me a fool,
They tell me not a soul cares for me sincerely, without wax,
They hate my presence, and would rather strike me with an axe
Then abruptly they eject me out of their home,
I’m filled with the new fears they’ve injected in my soul,
Hot tears slip past my bloodshot eyes,
The tiny ray of hope in me, shrunken further in size,
I come back to where I was; distorted, dizzy, troubled,
My thoughts’ path’s I traverse, imbalanced on the cobbled,
I seen careless, touchy and mentally absent,
Often in deep reverie, then shaken out, frazzled
You might wonder, if you’re normal (ha!), who those dark demons are,
Who brought me down to my place, and ripped me apart,
The dark house, so lonely, is none but my mind,
The dark demons, my fears, doubts and anxiety inside…
A Hesitation by Sairah Mamik
This poem was written by Sairah Mamik, a student of Vasant Valley School, Delhi.
Hallucinations and illusions
Clowns, wolves and delusions,
I’m perceived as distraught
Because I tend to perceive things a lot.
Things not existing
One in a parallel world of my own,
Visions that are twisting
My mind and all that’s shown.
At first, I felt I was a burden,
Only to soon realize
It’s not the end, but just a hurdle.
Why is it that when I try to leap and overcome it,
Society looks at me as if the illness is not legitimate,
As if the help I seek isn’t from a doctor too,
As if the anxiety and amnesia aren’t even worth a review.
Maybe you’d know if you stood here in my shoes,
That this isn’t see-through, that on the inside I’m blue.
You enjoy my agitation as if it were a show
You call me paranoid but is it not rightfully so?
Social isolation and societal segregation
Mental degradation, and one big hesitation.
A hesitation,
One to accept all the eyes in the room staring at me,
Glaring at me even when I’m in the corner wanting to be unnoticed
Maybe soon acceptance with some Cognitive Behavioral Therapy,
Would help swallow the pill I hesitated to take down
And maybe soon the frown of shame will be turned upside down.
Imperfect Me by Dishita Natu
This poem was written by Dishita Natu, a student of Vasant Valley School, Delhi.
Normal, what an odd subject,
A word that cripples my soul.
Expected to laugh and smile,
Molded like clay to fit a frame,
Sometimes this life feels like a game.
Eyes shown of joy,
But inside I feel destroyed.
Deep down I’m drowning in my tears,
Hoping to count on somebody to see through my exteriors,
But all people turn to see
Is a perfectly happy imperfect me.
This feeling is holding me hostage,
Wish I could cover this feeling cause it feels like a glitch.
Smiling through the pain,
But I’m being held back by an invisible chain.
I’ve held myself under lock and key,
Now suddenly everything is a haze to me.
Praying to God to make me somebody else,
Somebody who is anybody but myself.
Escaping from reality,
I realised comes with a price,
Needing to stay alive is what made me think twice.
The fire withering inside my soul,
Flooded with anxiety and trapped in an empty hole.
People say ‘It can’t be that bad’,
But little do they know,
That this very sentence is what makes me mad.
Slamming the door shut,
Face buried in my hands, hugging my knees
While tears flow down and make me freeze.
They will never grow to know this feeling,
They’ll never know why I find it unappealing.
Because deep down I’m suffering,
Deep down I’m broken but I keep wondering,
What it would feel like if I set myself free for a moment.
Screaming at the top of my lungs,
But no one can hear me.
So I can’t help but send a silent plea,
To whoever will listen- ‘I need a place to flee’.
It won’t leave me alone,
And I don’t know what to do.
Everytime I speak I say I’m fine,
But if they are inside my mind, they’ll know I’m at the bottom line.
I know I need to carry on,
Cause only I have the power,
To fight on each and every painful hour.
So here I stand
Ready to continue my story.
So that when people turn to see,
They’ll see a perfectly happy me.
They Don’t Know by Shyla Upadhyay
This poem was written by Shyla Upadhyay, a student of Vasant Valley School, Delhi.
They don’t know when they pinned me to the ground,
Ridiculed me for not doing their homework,
Denounced me as the “selfish loser” to the entire school,
They snatched my only penny of confidence,
Never to return it.
They don’t know, and they never will.
They don’t know when I wore my midnight blue dress that night,
The whispers of “damn, she’s so fat,” cut through my bones.
The pearl-white lace in my dress strangled me as I tried to keep my chin up.
That night, I threw my dress into the fire,
My self-image burned with it.
They don’t know, and they never will.
They don’t know when I messed up my recitation that day,
Their bouts of laughter still ring in my ear,
And every time the spotlight shines down on me,
My mind replays that very moment.
There is no pause.
They don’t know, and they never will.
They don’t know when they snickered and sneered as I passed the halls,
They made me feel like a ghost.
So small. So weak. The scars of their words were invisible to them all.
I wanted to leave, run far away and bury myself in shame,
But I was chained to this existence.
They don’t know, and they never will.
I stare at my ugly self in the mirror by my bedside,
Into those lonely and lifeless eyes.
Those labels etched in my mind have swallowed me,
All I feel now is an emptiness, so dark and deep.
Will I ever escape from this pain?
Now, I don’t know if I ever will.
We don’t know the brutal effect our words can have on those around us. It’s hard for young
teenagers to speak up about the mental problems they’re going through. We need to be there
for one another and show our support through love. We must always spread kindness.
A Sweet Divine by Vaanya Kalra
This poem was written by Vaanya Kalra, a student of Tagore International School, Vasant Vihar.
Love
A word so simple, yet an action that’s so difficult to effectuate.
Love
When thought of, your mind instantly directing towards a girl and a boy.
But what if I tell you, I swing the other way?
It’s hard to see the bigger picture, when you turn a blind eye towards it.
Blinded by what’s been told to you since childhood, all you saw was black and white
But what if I tell you, there’s a whole rainbow left to discover?
A rainbow, full of life and joy.
Ever since young,
I’ve been told that I’d never find myself in her
Because surely, a girl like me would find myself in him
But how can I explain, that she held my broken pieces,
And maybe, I held hers too
We found ourselves in one another
Two girls, dancing hand in hand towards the gates of hell
Or so, we were told
The world looked at me like I was the spawn of the devil.
My very own existence was a flaw,
They tried to cage my thoughts,
They told me I’m wrong to love her,
They told me it’s a sin,
But, I’ve looked into her eyes, and seen an ocean of happiness.
I’ve held her as she slept in my arms, calling me home, calling me safe.
So tell me, darling, is it more sacred to worship the divine from afar,
Or experience it yourself?
Love
A word so simple, yet an action that’s so difficult to effectuate.
Love
When thought of, you no longer think of a girl and boy
You finally understand, that people do swing the other way
You finally see the bigger picture, now that we’ve shown you the path
You’re no longer blinded by those lies, you no longer just see black and white
You have finally discovered that rainbow,
That rainbow, full of life and joy.
If Only They Knew by Chessana Malik
This poem was written by Chessana Malik, a student of Vasant Valley School, Delhi.
A hurricane in my brain destroying all that I had nurtured,
Intrusive thoughts that constantly keep me burdened.
Butterflies in my stomach that turned into a deep dark empty hole,
If only I acknowledged how it tore apart my heart and soul.
Around my loved ones I let loose and laugh,
Until the voice in my brain pushes me right back into the dark.
We must keep going, she’d murmur, it was the only way to heal.
But her angelic whispers soon turned into diabolical screams.
The constant loop of feeling nothing but numbness,
But to me my surroundings are gloomy and all I see is dullness.
Life is beautiful I understand,
Yet I can’t come to terms with if I want to stay in this fairyland.
Like every night I sat by my window in a silent fear,
The demons of my darkness often drove me here,
Gazing at the pitch-dark sky,
But tonight it was a boon!
As tonight for the first time, I noticed the moon.
But it had always existed, just out of sight!
Even when there was so much quiet in the sky.
It dazzled in its own light.
Musings of a Depressed Soul by Kyra Dhar
This poem was written by Kyra Dhar, a student of Vasant Valley School, Delhi.
Mornings. School. Friends. Fun.
What do these words even mean?
To me, they are a reminder of the mask I wear everyday,
A mechanism that makes sure that I am not seen.
Mornings fill me with a sense of dread,
About getting up and communicating;
All I want is to stay home alone,
Because pretending all day long feels very suffocating.
School is the place where the impostor comes out,
The one who is popular, confident and comfortable in her own skin;
She doesn’t shy away from the scrutinising stares of society,
She faces everything with a wide grin.
Friends make me want to cry,
Because they are as fake as the smile pasted on my face;
They never see the real me,
All they want is the popularity that comes by being in my good grace.
Fun is a term I don’t even know the meaning of anymore,
It has been snatched away from me;
By the fog that surrounds me at every step of my life,
I can’t escape it, even though all I want is to be free.
Stuck inside the cage of my mind,
Unable to escape, I am confined.
I can only dream about what is behind,
But I live in the shadow of the fog that makes me blind.
These monsters haunt me day and night,
They cloud my vision and my sight;
I want to give up but I keep hoping for a knight,
But deep down inside, I know that I am the only one who can win this fight.
It makes me wonder,
What if my life was in reality like the impostor?
Would I be cheerful and happy?
Or would the demons of my mind still not leave me?
These musings of mine are all in vain,
Depression just leads to a lot of pain;
Always try to fight to be joyful,
Because the alternative is simply awful.
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