Holes

A poem inspired by the poem written by Celia and her line “holes of clay”

 

You walk around them everyday

You walk over them

Unaware

Holes

Our streets have many

They are easy to fall down 

when you lose your way

Holes

Like cracks in the pavement

Potholed roads 

with muddy puddles of unknown depths

sometimes hard to avoid

Holes of clay

that suddenly swallow and suck

 stuck in the streets quick sand

Life has other holes

like holes punched

in a door

holes pierced

in a vein

in an attempt to release some pain

of the holes left by others

gone

a hollow hole in the heart

Holes everywhere

like the ones in the net

that now left unrepaired tears wider

and its catch falls further through

However

holes can be mended

sewn with a thread of compassion

holes can be filled

like pockets

gradually they hold handy stuff

holes can be mined

like the excavations for new foundations

Holes

sometimes wholesome

holes where the light shines in

a narrow gap in the fence

where a voice can shout through

where a hand can pass

a rope 

a lifeline of hope

Holes

take care to look

as our streets have many

full of people who tripped 

and got trapped

as you peer into the void

be mindful

even the vastest blackholes contain undiscovered stars

be aware

Holes

 

Written for the Trashformations Exhibition event October 2019 by Rachel Shore

Heroin

This piece of prose had been written by Barbara

When you first start taking it you don`t know that it will become a habit and no matter how you take it..its the devils drug. It controls your mind, body and soul. When you haven`t got it you can feel your blood boiling , the aches and pains our unbearable.Then you have it, it feels like you are wrapped in a woolly blanket, on the best fairground ride ever. When your blood finally calms down you feel like you are floating on air and that you can walk across water like a God.  

It starts of being an addiction then becomes an illness,without it your blood boils and blisters so bad around your body that it feels like your possessed by evil spirits. Your mind feels like your body wants it that much that you will do anything for the money, it becomes so out of control that you could rob someone just to feel normal.

Whatever normal is.

That`s my story of heroin.

 

Trashformations Art Project 2019

Good news !!!  We have been awarded Arts Council funding for an art and photography project entitled Trashformations throughout  2019 . Service users at MASH will be transforming photographs of Manchester`s dark, dirty and dank streets into artwork of the beautiful, wondrous and treasured. There will be an exhibition of artwork late Autumn 2019, watch this space for updates.

Here`s some taster photos taken by our resident photographer Shari Denison

autumn beauty

In the last few sessions the women have been creating work inspired by autumn

A collective ghost story

This story is currently in the making as women taking part in the creative writing sessions have been asked to add a paragraph at a time, please keep visiting our blog to read more of the story as it unfolds

What was I seeing with my unseen eye?

I was stood on top of the light house looking down on to the sea to see what I could see and what I saw  was nothing but shadows passing though  the water’s edge in the night light. The main light from the light house shone  ever so bright on the sea front , suddenly I saw a shadow of what look like a man stood looking back at me, so I let out a mighty scream only to release it was just a reflection given off by the light or was it ? As the night air wrapped my body in a cold embrace I decided to seek some warmth and turned to head home. The road up into the village was quiet, still and eerie. I past the graveyard, out the corner of my eye came the glimpse of a hooded figure, I was already feeling scared and lonely, as I had most of my life. I hesitated and didn’t know is I should run, or was natural curious nature going to compel me to overcome my fear and approach the figure. Well I found myself walking over to the figure. As I approached I realized the figure was quite still and not moving at all. It all became clear that I had been given the heebie jeebies by a headstone. I looked closer, squinting my eyes in the darkness, the headstone read “Here lies gold digger, Take 15 steps to the right, 15 steps left, facing south. The last laugh is on me” I flowed the instructions, suddenly realizing I was back where I started, annoyingly I sensed I wasn’t the first to fall for this joke. In the corner of my eye the moonlight caught the metal of the disguarded spade, probably left by old Tom the grave digger. “Maybe the last laugh is on me!” I said out loud and began to dig . I dug and dug but to no joy, I found myself deep in this huge hole and not knowing exactly how I could get myself out of it. The funny thing is I realized that many times in my life I`ve been in this position. My thoughts were broken by the piercing cries of a crow, my heart skipped in scare, I realized I needed to escape this hole, my bare hands gripped at the cold earth as I pulled myself out. Suddenly my fingers tapped an object buried in the dirt, half visible in the dark, it was a ……

If you had a superpower to save the world what would it be…?

SERVICE USERS AT MASH WERE ASKED THE QUESTION 

IF YOU HAD A SUPERPOWER WHAT WOULD IT BE?

“to see future events to prevent them from happening”

” to be able to fly”

“to save the world everybody needs the same amount of money-the super rich should give to the homeless”

” Superpower strength”

” I`d put a force field around the world”

“Id have the ability to stop time,to put everything back that went wrong”

“I`d have a cyclop eye  with a lazer beam and line up all the animal poachers and slave masters and kill them!!”

” Id save all the orphans and vulnerable women”

 

Who would you share a last meal with?

We asked who would we share a meal with, anyone alive, dead, fantasy or famous?

What would you eat and where would it be?

Here is our answers…..

I would have one of my nans most amazing roast dinners

I would have a meal with Malcolm X , I would eat wherever he wants as long as hes paying

I would go for a meal with Steve Irwin, he cared for all animals.he had a good physique,lovely tanned skin,handsome,he showed real heart. He taught his daughter how to reach out to animals.He died by stingray. We would eat banana boat ice cream,a glass of wine,in the middle of no-where,Love Island!!

Id have a Jamaican meal with Bob Marley, with a glass of rum!

I would have dinner with Oprah Winfrey. We would eat mangos,curry goat and rice and cheesecake. we would eat it at the top of the world.

Id have a MacDonalds with my wife!!

 

WE WOMEN a collective poem by service users for International Women`s day 2018

We Women

 

We women are,

 we are strong

and we get through whatever life throws at us.

We are women are fighters of justice, of peace.

We are believers in equality, in respect ,and that

we are enough.

We women wish

that people would listen to each other.

We wish things could be different and this government didn’t exist.

We wish for better days.

We wish for loved ones to return to us.

We wish and we wait.

We women have,

we have the same thoughts,

 the same desires of anyone else in this world.

We have to overcome fears, recondition our brains.

We have voices that need hearing.

We have mountains to climb

and we have friends that believe in us.

We women will,

we will always be independent women.

We will take time to help each other and always care.

We will keeping giving

and walk through life with heads high.

Because we women can.

( created collectively by service users at M.A.S.H. edited by Rachel Shore)

 

W.O.M.E.N.

A short acrostic poem by Barbara for international women`s day

 

W  onderfully

O  ptimistic

M  ightly

E  mpowered

N  ever wrong !!!

 

Acrostic poem by anon

 

W  icked

O  pen-hearted

M  agnificent

E  nthusiastic

N  urturing

Keep your dreams alive

“I have been looking for work for more than 5 months, its very stressful, there are 500 ,600 people going for the same job. You don`t get a chance, you just have to be lucky. You keep getting knocked back, lots of people feel the same”

“My ideal job ? cleaning, catering assistant, my dream job would be in customer service. I want to be independent and be able to support myself. ”

“The pressure is scary, I have to apply for 10 jobs a week or my benefits get cut, I need to stay strong and positive”

“M.A.S.H has helped me 100% in every way with English, benefits advice and food parcels.”

“My advice to others, stay positive, keep going, keep your dreams alive…sometimes it feels like they are the only thing we have ”

Anonymous