MISSION STATEMENT

SILENT VOICES SPEAK started out as Silent Voices: A Writer’s Workshop, as the first group at the drop-in center at the Broadway location of Community Counseling Centers of Chicago, whose purpose is to empower it’s attendees to form and attend their own groups.

We have branched out as an independent entity. We are silent no more. We say yes to the creative possibilities of life & art...

The mission of SILENT VOICES SPEAK is to give a voice to people who are disenfranchised. Many of the participants in SILENT VOICES SPEAK are also visual and/or performing artists.

Membership is open to all.
Send submissions to lizhipwell@gmail.com.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Fourteen Hours by Sharon H.

Tears 
Fears
Panic Attacks
Rocking on the floor
in the corner
Alone
heaviness
darkness
hard to breathe
Lost.

Torn,
in tunnel of isolation
where knowledge
equals
Tears
Fears
Panic Attacks
rocking
on the floor
in the corner
Alone.
Heaviness,
weighted responsibility,
where the fear of
dropping it,
accidently,
sends me running,
running...

Running 
in the tunnel
of isolation,
running hurriedly
fearfully,
to razor blades.
Running forward,
but too,
trying to pull
myself back.

Anger
Fear
Sadness,
the little girl
hiding in the corner
alone
in her pain
in her grief
in the secrets
that can't be told.
Spinning
spinning
around and around
upside down
twisted,
everything is wrong.
The adult 
the child
Past and Present
trapped
in this tunnel.

Over and over
Tears
Fears
Panic Attacks
alone
in darkness,
warned
not to tell...
or else...
something
very bad
might happen.

The adult 
the child
curl up in darkness
can't stay
can't leave,
the past and present
collide together
over and over...
time moves on
 over and over
tears
fears
panic attacks
'Wants' to scream
for help
blocked
by Fear
controlled elsewhere.

In isolation
tears
fears
panic attacks
alone
in the corner
of darkness
wanting to not feel-
can't stay here
can't leave here...

Time continues..
fourteen hours
passing..and still
tears
fears
panic attacks
alone
in darkness
even in the
light of day...
Isolated
hurting...
secrets...
told
do not tell...it
burns away
the life within.

Curled up
child and adult
together
time
non-existant
they are one
4 and 44
feeling...
scared
angry
sad
alone.
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen Hours...
it 
goes
on 
and
on
with
no
end
in
sight..

by Sharon H.