Within Darkness are such haunting words.
I begin writing this post while listening to Bill Oberst Jr‘s voice slowly and hauntingly say, ‘Within Darkness‘.
“Creative souls are introspective souls. With introspection comes the realization that our lives are but a mist within a vapor. We don’t get to choose how our minds instinctively react to this revelation, but we do get to choose whether we remain in darkness. Demons are best fought with a friend at one’s side. Reach out. Talk to someone. All around this old world, your fellow creatives are right beside you in spirit. There’s light ahead. Don’t give up. Don’t give in. You’ve never alone.” – With love and good cheer, Bill
Firstly, Within Darkness is a short film raising awareness about depression and mental health. It is one mans journey with depression with the important message to speak out and not remain ‘within darkness‘.
Within Darkness
Within Darkness is a poem written by Stephen Harper and his struggle with depression. It is very moving and hard hitting, and comes from the creative mind of Stephen, a dark-folk underground artist. He specialises in creating otherworldly and surreal character illustrations, which are inspired by myths, movies, pop-culture, and horror.
Firstly, we have a lot in common as we both struggle with mental health issues and we both love horror. In addition, we both agreed to work together on a project to raise awareness of mental health conditions. As a result, WITHIN DARKNESS is currently a work in progress that is growing ever more exciting by the minute. We hope to have it ready within the next couple of weeks, so please stay tuned for further developments.
Since the release of my book ‘Autumn: The Melancholy & Mental Health’ I’ve managed to connect with a lot of creative people that has kicked started a lot of individual projects and collaborations. I’ve known Amanda since 2013 when we traded next to each other at a horror convention, we instantly connected through our love of art and horror. I was taken aback by Amanda’s amazing photography and always wanted to work with her in some capacity. I honestly didn’t think I’d have to have a mental breakdown before I collaborated with her, but hey!
Obviously Amanda’s stunning photography graces the cover of my book, but very quickly we decided we wanted to collaborate again. Amanda came up with the concept of me writing a specialist poem incorporating a fusion of mental health and horror. It would be set against her gorgeous Gothic photography and music composed specifically by the very talented Tony Longworth. To cap it all off, actor and horror icon Bill Oberst Jr graciously came on board to narrate. His stature and haunting voice propels the narration to another level.
Stephen Harper
Managing Mental Health Conditions
As creative artists, we both realise important aspects of managing our conditions of which the first is, ‘being creative’. It is only when we are working creatively, that we begin finding inner peace. Additionally, it is almost as if we’re locked away from any interference from the outside world.
Firstly, if you begin looking up methods of managing stress, it recommends that you do something creative. When you are in the present moment using your senses, there is no worry.
Secondly, the aspect of managing your mental health is to talk about it and not to remain WITHIN DARKNESS.
It’s not easy to speak out for fear of being branded mental or weak. Sometimes, it is hard to speak out as you may fear a persons reaction or feel weak, embarrassed or hurt.
Before I was diagnosed with anxiety, I knew that I wasn’t myself. I didn’t want to go out and mingle with people, and I felt like I couldn’t cope. Furthermore, I was avoiding anything that might cause me stress or grief.
I remember receiving text messages and wanting to avoid them. Following this, my feelings of anxiety were growing when looking at their name for fear of not answering them.
A letter would arrive and I’d feel my heart racing before I knew what it was about.
My place of work was so stressful that I constantly felt intense butterflies causing me to fold over.
The worst thing is, although I knew that I wasn’t myself, I remember fearing to speak out about it. I felt weak and stupid!
My resulting behaviour was beating myself up. I began hating myself and I started bottling everything up. Thankfully, I began seeking help, which meant that I began speaking out to avoid remaining in darkness!
Depression
1 in 4 of us will experience a mental health condition.
The poem ‘Within Darkness’ is personal.
Based around the story of a suicide survivor and what emotions occurred during the days leading up to the attempt. I’m fully aware that it’s a very difficult topic to discuss, but I’ve first hand experience of this issue and all my poems are personal to me and honest accounts. It’s a topic I feel very strongly about and needs to be discussed more as in the UK alone it’s the single biggest cause of death for men under the age of 45. The shocking statistic is 84 men take their own life each week. If we don’t raise awareness and start to discuss this topic more and more will suffer and it’ll only increase.
To write a poem that is so personal, sometimes it’s hard to share that creative process with other artists, but this collaboration has been a joy to be part of. Each artist empathizes, identifies, complements and supports each other immensely and I couldn’t be prouder to have been a part of this artist collective.
Stephen Harper
Tony Longworth
Within Darkness features not only myself and Stephen, both from the great spooky Liverpool. In addition, it features my good friend and talented composer, Tony Longworth. Tony Longworth has written two pieces of music especially for this project. You may recognise Tony’s name as we regularly collaborate on projects. More importantly, he is an award winning music composer.
Bill Oberst Jr, the voice of Within Darkness
Finally, we have the amazing and talented, award winning actor, Bill Oberst Jr.
His voice narrating Stephen’s poem adds intensity. He sounds absolutely amazing and brings our collaborative efforts together. Please check out Bill Oberst Jr amazing website to see how talented and creepy he is.