My mission as impossible as it seems at times, is to write that one poem that truly stands out and makes people stop and think about a given subject, be it mental health or the social issues of the day.

I write because some truths refuse to stay quiet. Poetry became the place where my mind could finally exhale where the chaos of anxiety, the weight of depression, and the unspoken fears could exist without apology. 

On the page, I learned that healing doesn’t mean being fixed; it means being honest. Each line is a small act of survival, a way of naming the shadows so they lose their power. 

Poetry didn’t cure me, but it taught me how to listen to myself, how to turn pain into language instead of letting it turn inward. In that way, writing became both mirror and medicine a reminder that vulnerability is not weakness, but proof that I’m still here, still fighting, still feeling.

At the same time, poetry became my megaphone. When I write about societal injustice, I’m not chasing perfection or fame I’m chasing truth. I write for the people who are tired of being statistics, for the stories that get buried under headlines and hashtags. 

Poetry lets me slow the world down long enough to say: this matters, these lives matter, and silence is not an option. 

It’s where anger becomes articulation, where grief becomes a call to action. If mental health poetry is how I heal myself, then my social activist poetry is how I stand with others using rhythm and words to push back against systems that thrive on indifference, and to remind us that empathy is a radical, necessary act.

While we all dream, or strive to live a long life.

Living a very long life offers more time to grow, reinvent oneself, deepen wisdom, and build lasting relationships, potentially strengthening responsibility to future generations. 

Yet extreme longevity can dilute motivation and meaning if life lacks structure, and it may bring emotional fatigue, loss, or stagnation. 

Ultimately, a longer life matters only if it remains healthy, adaptable, and purposeful- reminding us to live fully now, even as we imagine having more time.

I have tried to experiment or write my poetry differently, so many times. I’ve tried angry diss track type, I’ve tried dark poetry. I even tried writing the kind of rhyming same number of lines per verse Hallmark style poetry.

In the end it’s not about doing things differently, it’s about learning what your strengths are creatively and playing to them. I’ve not done things differently I’ve just learnt to push myself outside of my comfort zone, to take risks, while evolving as an artist.

The ONLY thing I’d maybe do differently, is to start on this path earlier than I did (2005) who knows where I’d be then.

Bob Christian

Not just poetry anymore.

Bob-Christian.com

That’s a tough one, I’m assuming college as in the American term. So I’ll start at the beginning…

I first attended college at 17 to study mechanical and electrical engineering at HNC & HND (higher national certificate/degree) this was while I was working for Rolls Royce aerospace like my (bio) father and grandfather. I then went onto a number of other engineering qualifications, paid for by employers over the years to degree standard.

The next courses I did were paid for by a German engineering company called Voss. I studied PMO’s ( performing manufacturing operations ) this is basically a method of showing how to do a job using pictures and words, plus as a cell leader or supervisor I was also expected to do the assessors award so I can then teach PMO’s at an NVQ level.

In my later years I’ve studied subjects at Havard, Georgetown, and a number of other colleges through the EdX online learning platform founded by Harvard and MIT in 2012. I discovered it a year later, while doing ethical reasoning and CS50 (Computer science) via Harvard. I dropped CS50 to do Bioethics at Georgetown instead.

So I’ve studied a lot and I’m going to study some more as it’s fun to learn new things.

I do play in my daily life. I head to an invite only lobby, and head to Los Santos to maybe go for a bike ride or play golf.

Yes I’m talking about GTAV (online) it’s my goto game, and I like the fact that you can play all the missions etc and you don’t have to put up with some teenager with a weaponised flying bike giving everyone grief. The other thing is I can just go for a drive, or any number of activities and not worry about other people.

The other games I love to play are the Batman Arkham series or even the new Gotham Knights game. These games appeal to me as my narrow field of focus (one of them) is Batman. I posses a library of graphic novels (around 5-600) most of them are Batman related the rest are marvel and some indie comics. Batman games are great because they’re not just punching bad guys, there’s clues to find, riddles to solve and the collectible art works are simply stunning.

Playtime for me is a form of downtime, and a way to relax after a hard or stressful day, it’s not just for teenagers anymore.

Ps MMORPG’s like World of Warcraft or Black Desert online are a great way to loose half a day questing

There’s only one place that sparks off nostalgia…

My Shed. Sitting in my shed in the warm weather, tinkering with some do-hickey or writing poetry.

The reason that this is that when I was a small boy, my parents had a shed at the back of the garden behind a massive silver birch tree. I used to love playing in it or just getting away from the world. Then there’s my grandfather’s.

One was an engineer for Rolls Royce aerospace and had basically extended his shed by bolting two together, cutting through and adding electrical points for a chest freezer, which looking back is quite a feat while also being a health and or safety violation.

The other was a retired fireman. Who was a keen gardener, painter and handyman. His shed was standard sized with a rug on the deck and draws and boxes of things everywhere. Including things hung from the ceiling plant pots were stacked on the floor and it collected rain water into a couple of water barrels.

So, no I’m a grandfather myself I have my own shed. Mine has a rug and a chair, a nice workbench made from off cuts of the kitchen. It has a solar panel on the side that has a micro usb connector, which charges a solar (or mains) powered light bulb, or my phone, screwdriver etc. I love nothing more than sitting in there in summer and relaxing, or writing some poetry. When I’m in the shed I do reminisce fondly of times gone by.

Im a poet and photographer. So I’d say yes. Right..?

Well photography has been something I’ve loved doing for many years. I’m talking disposable flash cubes long, without ever seeing it as creative. I’ve always just seen photography as something fun and a way of documenting those cherished memories for my children and grandchildren. In later years I’ve had people comment on my pictures and style and say I have “an eye for it”. Truth be told I’ve no idea of what I’m doing. I’ve never studied it at any level, well I did one photography for beginners lesson, at the hotel we were staying at over Christmas (it was 2hr while on our honeymoon) I don’t know what settings do to a picture or what or what focal length etc is, actually i lie I googled it yesterday. You get the point though I’ve no clue how to set up shots. I just like to take pictures, and occasionally I get shots like this.

My poetry however is a completely different animal. I started writing poetry or scribbles as I prefer to call them twenty years ago. This started out as a way of dealing with my crippling depression and anxiety (which turned out to be Autism, and PTSD) it was supposed to be a form of therapy to help me process what was going on in my life. It was when I scribbled a little something for my nieces naming ceremony, that things began to take shape, as people started asking me who wrote it, where did I get it from. I realised that i might have a gift for this poetry malarkey.

Unlike photography where I have a knack for apparently (Mrs Bob thinks so) poetry is something I’ve had to work at as apart from being on the spectrum, I’m dyslexic to boot. This means I’ve had to learn and ask my (actually qualified) proofreading wife, Mrs Bob, (who hasn’t read this post prior to posting) to help me.

So I’d say, I’m not creative. I’m just hard working and I’ve used therapy to write some emotional stories while learning to heal.

“(Excerpt) I didn’t want to be a poet, I just wanted to be ok”

“My metaphors aren’t pretty, they’re practical.

Every line is triage…

Every pause is me checking for a pulse.”

The biggest influences in my life are a small group of poets that belong to the Button poetry stable. The reason is that when I first started writing my scribbles and trying to turn them into poetry I felt I didn’t fit in with what poetry was supposed to be. All I’d ever read was the stuffy “I wandered lonely as a cloud” style of classical poetry.

That was until I was scrolling through YouTube one night and came across button poetry and one of there poets called Kyle Tran Mhyre aka Guante, with a piece called “Ten responses to the phrase, Man-up” it was raw, emotional, and so passionate. What I’d discovered was slam style poetry and this was more my style. It didn’t have to rhyme, and you could use any language you wanted to get your point across. The more I watched of Guante and other Button poets, such as Neil Hilborn and Rudy Francisco, the more I realised that this was the style of poetry i wanted to write myself.

That was nearly twenty years ago.

Since then I’ve continued to write slam style poetry and I’ve found my own style and voice. I’ve written about some painful subjects and I’ve raised awareness of mental health, with poems such as “This poem Ends Every Forty Seconds” (statistically a person takes their life every forty seconds) The crowning achievement for me was probably having the people that inspired me, become more than just my peers and become virtual friends. I also (anonymously) took part in a No Kings event organised by Guante, where poets, artists etc all worked together and shared their work and ideas.

So the people that inspired are

• Kyle Tran Mhyre
• Neil Hilborn
• Rudy Francisco
• Jesse Parent

Stay safe Bc

The last thing I did for fun was get my new camera and start experimenting with its features and new shooting styles and effects.

So stay tuned and let’s see how this pans out.