A psychiatrist suggested she should start writing a diary. Instead, Geronique Solomons from Highbury, Kuils River, started writing poems.

Poetry led her towards that proverbial light at the end of a dark tunnel, and her first poetry anthology: The Vicissitudes of Life: No Memories, only Absence – Destiny awaits.

Message

Solomons, a teacher at a primary school in Mitchells Plain, enjoys working with Grade 7 learners who are still open to being moulded.

With her anthology she wants to spread a universal message that it is okay to speak about mental health and counter the stigma.

“People are afraid to speak about mental health. They get labelled, why?” With the correct treatment and support there is hope, she explains. “I myself was diagnosed with depression and right now I’m doing fine and I function at work. With the correct guidance and without stigma, it is something that can be spoken about openly.”

Topics

She reiterates that mental illness isn’t visible like physical injuries and people often carry the pain alone.

There are nine poems in the collection, each with an explanatory note. “Poems are figuratively written, so I’ve written a biography for each one of them so that the readers can actually know what the poem is about and don’t have to figure it out.”

“Some of the topics covered include the loss of a parent you might have never known, the loss of someone who was your guide, but it is also for teenagers. I’ve dabbled a little into my past. ‘Love Lost’, one of the poems, is about that first love, like Romeo and Juliet.”

Raw and real

About the poem “No Memories but grief still lives on”, Solomons says she never knew her father. “I don’t have an image, a memory, nothing. There are so many kids growing up without a father or mother, they can relate to that longing, that need when seeing other children with their parents, questioning, ‘Was I not worth living for’?” The tears often flowed when she wrote. “Everything is raw and real in my poetry, it’s not something made up,” she says.

In “Strength in forgiveness” she writes:

They see the quiet water and assume it is weak,

Unaware of the deep, tectonic shift below.

Forgiveness is the fire that cleanses the field,

Clearing away the ash so the phoenix can grow.

“True strength is not found in anger, but in the quiet, fierce strategy of mercy,” says Solomons. “There is transformation waiting on the other side of the fire.”

Currently available only as an e-book, Solomons says Kindle Direct Publishing is not available in South Africa. She is hoping to find a sponsor to get the anthology printed.

Contact Solomons at geronique@gmail.com.

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