Poetry for CALM - help prevent suicide

I know I'm not alone in experiencing the bewilderment of losing someone to suicide. It's been seven years since my brother lost his battle with depression. A lot of time - yet some days the pain and sadness is as raw as ever.

Read poems - save lives

Poetry is a way to connect with others, to start a conversation. It's a craft I treasure and work hard to perfect. Over these last seven years I've written many pieces of work drawing from the range of emotions this type of grief can cause. Some are sad (of course) some are silly and some are a beautiful connection with the person my brother was. 

I've gathered the best of these poems into a short collection (known as a pamphlet in the poetry world) and intend to publish them to raise funds for CALM and UK SOBS. CALM seeks to stand up to suicide, stand up to stereotypes and change conversations. UK SOBS is a charity devoted to supporting people bereaved by suicide. 

I want to continue the conversations we are beginning to have about suicide, about the complex nature of the decision, about the impact on those left behind.I hope that money raised will go some way towards supporting people to find a way to continue to live, when it seems like the least possible choice. 

How will it work?

This is where you come in. Your donations and pre-orders will fund publication and most importantly everything over £486 will go directly to CALM and UKSOBS. 

What are the poems like?

Thanks to a bursary from Raven Studios and expert editing from Olivia Tuck,  I've created a collection of poems that will inspire and uplift as well as giving insight into the reality of living with grief. 

To give credibility to the pamphlet, and increase the chance of sales to a wider audience I've approached some poets who I admire and asked for their endorsement of my work. I'm very grateful for their time, and generous words about my work

Endorsements for Dust

"Kathryn Anna Marshall's pamphlet Dust opens with an image of weightlessness - and through these skillful and courageous poems, she examines the shockwave of grief experienced by families when a loved one dies by suicide, leaving the foundations of their lives irrevocably uprooted. Here, we encounter the "little sister" who  "looks to the sky / and wonders / about gravitational / collapse", navigate the memories of the before and the after, and hear the deep, resounding heart-song of loss. Marshall's attentive poetry takes great care here to precisely map the terrain of a very particular kind of bereavement, and to demarcate the shape that the pain and anguish of absence takes in her tender, acutely-observed words." 

Jane Commane - Nine Arches Press

" poems in this collection exist in the liminal place in which traumatic grief places us. This negative space is expressed in the careful use of white space on the page, the gentle, delicate cut of  language. These are elegant, controlled but brutal poems" 

Wendy Pratt - award winning poet, tutor and editor of Spelt magazine

These are poems of love and loss, where ‘dust’ not only embodies death but something tangible – the weight of grief itself, which ‘settles like ash / gritty teeth chalk tongue swallow / it down’. Kathryn Anna Marshall writes beautifully and with candour on survival and trauma. The world she conjures is lit with pain and confusion, the realm of those left behind. Details are steeped in importance, ‘at twelve minutes past eight / they cremated you’; dreams and possessions stir memories, regrets; and with heart ache comes harsh clichés, ‘You learn legs do go / from beneath’. Yet hope belongs to the living, and together, these tender, potent elegies are a songbook to the ‘soft promise’ of spring.

Ian Humphreys - award winning poet

A beautiful book

Connection with Raven Studios led to finding talented illustrator Saffron Russell whose work with poet Lewis Wyn Davies struck me as perfect for this project. Saffron will take care of the magic stuff like typesetting, cover design, and illustration. Saffron's work has a unique quality that reflects the blend of sadness and love threaded though the poems. 

We'll be using a printing company whose work we know and trust, and who meets our standards for environmental responsibility. 

The book will have an ISBN makes it easier for booksellers to sell it to allow for wider distribution. It's expensive, but essential. 

How much money will go to the charities?

Start up costs are around £486. Everything over this amount will go to charity. This includes money raised from your donations, and pre-orders via the reward button. Retail sales will be subject to the booksellers percentage - usually around 3%. 

Pre-order via the reward button

Thank you so much for reading this. I hope you're able to donate a little towards this project - whether it's 20p or 20 million pounds it means the world to have your support. If donating isn't possible right now, it'd be great if you could share this project wherever you can. 

Thank you xx 

Kathryn