To the young who want to die by Gwendolyn Brooks

hola mis amores;

I hope the past week has been good to all of you. I've been studying and revising a lot the past week as I have two exams this week. Hope they go well.

So today, the poem I want to talk about is "To the young who want to die" by the talented Gwendolyn Brooks. This is one of my personal favorites and it's very close to my heart.

A little warning, this poem talks about suicidal themes and suicidal ideation. If this kind of content triggers you, please stop reading right here. And know that you're not alone and if you want to I'd love to have a chat with you!

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I came across this poem when I was randomly browsing google and I had to stop and read because the title caught my eye.

If I were to be honest, I found this when I was in a dark place and it made me rethink a lot of stuff.

Things get hard and honestly sometimes way too much than you can handle.

Death seems tempting when things don't go your way. It's like a long drawn out slumber that you will never wake up from. It's a relieving and a terrifying thought at the same time. Relieving because the pain ends and terrifying because life also ends.

I like to imagine that death isn't evil as it has always been portrayed. Maybe the black, tall, boney figure with a scythe has a heart. I'd like to imagine that the worst part of their job is to gather souls that have given up on life out of their own will. The amount of pain a person might have to be in to give u on their dreams and future might have been immense. The only way they saw out was to stop existing. It hurts, doesn't it?

This poem puts death into a weird perspective for me. It makes me feel as if they don't really want to do what they're doing and are just doing it as a duty and to maintain balance.

It also makes me ponder if death truly has this book with names, dates and methods of death written and every time he sees a person who loses the battle with their mental illnesses does it get harder for them to go about their day? Does it make them want to fight with life? Does it make them want to go against the rules of nature just to give that person a second chance at a happier life?

Does death wait with a bated breath, hoping that the gun doesn't unload or hoping that you cough out the vial of medicine before it reacts or for your life instinct to kick in once you're in the deep blues of the lake? Does death wait with a bated breath hoping they don't have to collect your soul?

I know battling a mental illness can be very hard. I'm genuinely proud of you if you're here right now. I know some days you don't want to go on and the pain seems immense and I really don't want to say the line, 'it gets better' without meaning it.

If you're here, it means you've survived your bad days before and I believe you can do it again and again, any amount of times it takes for you to win the battle. I'm in great awe of the strength it took you to get here and stay for all this while. I really love you and the world needs you.

If you feel like you're alone and really want to talk to someone please do reach out to me. I can't promise I can help but I'll definitely listen to you and be there till you need me.

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Damn. This was a hard one to get down for me. To think of death as a person and give them human like qualities was insane and I had so many thoughts that it was a volley of questions at one point.

I hope you liked it!

until next time,

~moonrelation