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‘WHAT FRIGHTENS YOU?’ – OCTOBER 2023

October 25, 2023:

Our poser to you, ‘what frightens you?’ has elicited all kinds of fascinating imagery, thought-provoking words and in some cases, deeply moving testimony that truly resonates with those of us who experience fear and anxiety in its many different guises.

Two words, repeating, really stood out for me in one of the brilliant entries we received this month. “What if, what if, what if?” That constant refrain, worrying about things that haven’t happened and probably never will, dominates the brain of a person with anxiety; but I found it powerful, uplifting and educational to hear how that particular member of our community is learning to cope with those thoughts. Really insightful – read their submission below.

Thanks also to Kate Madden for her simply stunning visual depictions of fear, right and below.

– David Mitchell, RF Create.

Her Father’s Ghost

She cannot hear him.
Sees nothing of his hands,
like starlings murmuring,
round her shoulders.

She stops and looks up at the darkening sky
and he tries to turn her collar up against the oncoming rain.

She lifts her collar against the oncoming rain
and thinks of him for a moment, as she does
when she feels the rain is coming –

how they stood together with their faces to the sky, not blinking
the opposite of fish gulping air at the surface of a pond,
their hair in broken strings,
cheeks flushed pink,
tongues sticking out,
laughing.

She walks on quickly before the rain comes on.

And he hangs back seeing how much taller she is now,
remembering his heart beat

watching her bring the trees into blossom, one by one,
as she passes them on the street.

DOD, Wiltshire

Thanks to former RF staff member Jon Baker for this image!

October 15, 2023:

We’re approaching that strange, misty time of year when we embrace all things fearful and scary. A time of pumpkins and fancy dress, ghost stories and macabre films, trick or treating and jack o’lanterns.

In many ways, Hallow’een is a time to mock and make fun of the things that truly frighten us. We turn something dark into something fun, we put on silly costumes and make spooky noises.

But fear runs deeper for most of us than simply laughing at silly costumes and tall tales. Most of us have something that terrifies us. It might be a phobia of something tangible, like spiders or heights. Or maybe it’s a deeper fear that plays a major role in your psyche. In my case, a constant fear of failure, of not being good enough, that drives me to be focused and do things well on my better days, but can paralyse me on my bad days.

Some might say fear is a healthy thing. Certainly in some situations it can save us from harm. But sometimes I wonder if we’re being governed by it, and feel that much of what we hear and read about the world is almost designed to make us live in a state of constant fear and anxiety.

What frightens you? In words or pictures, sounds or videos, craft or food or in any creative form we haven’t even thought of yet. Whether a little bit of fun or something deeper and more serious, send us your expressions of your fears.

– David Mitchell, RF Create.

RIGHT, AND BELOW: Matilda Marasco, from our RF Cambridgeshire Employment Service, sent in these wonderful drawings

Skeleton Crew

I come upon them by accident
drinking tea in the sunshine.

They hardly seem to notice
how their little fingers are left behind
like sugar cubes on the saucer
when they lift their cups;

how their tea falls like rain down blinds
onto a handful of small stones and damp leaves
on their pelvic floor.

Their knee caps lie around them in the grass
like field mushrooms.

No flies or few. And if one lands they do not notice.

Smiling like imbeciles
and all seeming shy with no eyes.
The sunlight on their heads
warms the breeze inside the skull.

I feel sorry for them.
And leaving quietly
thinking never to return

I hear the sound of a cup
being set down upon a saucer
and a whisper –

Until tomorrow then?

DOD – Wiltshire