Donna Samantha
Donna came across Survivors’ Poetry while looking for opportunities where writing about lived experience and mental health was not only welcomed, but understood. What particularly drew her to Survivors was the space it gives people to express experiences that are sometimes difficult to put into ordinary conversation. That felt very connected to why she wrote “The Mask”.
THE MASK
Mental health.
Two little words
we’re told to share.
“Just speak,” they say.
“We’ll all be there.”
But I have masks.
They fit me well.
You see the smile.
I hide the hell.
One says I’m fine.
One says I’m strong.
One keeps me smiling
all day long.
“Take off your mask.
Come talk,” they say.
“Mental health matters.
You’ll be okay.”
So off it comes.
I let you see.
For just one moment—
I show you me.
You take my hand.
You say you care.
I start believing
you’ll be there.
The flowers bloom.
The grass grows green.
Perhaps I’m finally
being seen.
Then summer goes.
The flowers fall.
And suddenly—
no help at all.
“Too many people.”
“Not enough care.”
“Try somewhere else.”
But where?
I fought the stigma.
Fought the doubt.
Fought my own mind
to speak this out.
And now I fight
to keep from you
the mental health support
you told me to pursue.
So back it goes.
I know the drill.
The mask goes on.
I’m smiling still.
Then people ask
why numbers grow,
why mental health
keeps sinking low.
Perhaps the answer
isn’t hard to know:
Don’t offer hands
then let them go.
… Donna is a Psychology with Counselling student and an emerging writer who is continuing to discover her voice through poetry and other forms of writing. Much of her writing is influenced by lived experience and explores mental health, identity, being heard, and the experiences that can sometimes remain hidden behind what other people see on the outside.
Writing has become a way of giving words to some of those experiences and also of asking questions that do not always have simple answers. She is particularly interested in writing that might make somebody pause, recognise something of themselves, or feel a little less alone in what they are experiencing.
Her poem ‘The Mask’ explores mental health from the perspective of somebody who can appear to be coping on the outside while struggling very differently on the inside. It also looks at what can happen when somebody finally finds the courage to remove that mask, ask for help and trust the support being offered, only to find that support does not always remain.
Donna says “This is something I wanted to express very simply and rhythmically, because beneath the words is a question I feel strongly about: if we continually encourage people to speak about their mental health, what happens when they do speak and the helping hand they were encouraged to reach for is no longer there?”
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