Sarah Louise Persson

I was born in Telford, Shropshire, England in 1966. As a young girl I wrote a few poems but, typically, never thought they were ever any good - hence they all ended up in the bin.
When I was 15 my family and I emigrated to South Africa. At first I hated it. I felt I'd been dragged away from all the childhood things that I loved and, yes, I felt a little sorry for myself, but was determined that one day I would return to the UK. As it happens, I not only fell in love with South Africa, I also found love and had two beautiful sons.
Over the years, during my married life, I did write a few poems. These were mainly written for special people in my life. I never felt the need to keep any of them or write them in a book.
I did leave South Africa, even though I had fallen in love with the country and I do return now and then to visit my family, who are all still living there. It truly is a stunningly beautiful place and, no matter what, you can't help but feel it running through your veins after you've lived there for a few years.
My family and I moved to Denmark for a few years, but after a while I did start to long for my home country and we made the decision to move to the UK in 2002. After a few years of living in England, my marriage started to fall apart. The decision to divorce must have been the hardest decision either of us had ever had to make but we both knew it was for the best.
As the years passed I didn't write much poetry at all. I became too busy and, like you do, got swallowed up in the everyday of the everyday. Early on in 2015 I fell into a deep depression which stemmed from some issues that I had never dealt with. They therefore reared their ugly head every now and then over the years. With the depression, as a release therapy, I started writing poetry again, getting all those feelings down on paper. Boy, it felt good to finally have a release. With the help of a doctor and my expressions through my poetry, I began to feel a lot better, which brings me to today. I am now a very healthy woman with an extremely positive outlook on life.