Suicide Prevention Queensland – Lament, by Simon Russell

When losing someone to suicide, it can be very difficult to express your feelings in words.

More than 20 years ago, poet and selectability LSW, Simon Russell delicately articulated his feelings through poetry, after losing a close friend in the early 1980s to suicide.

The Bowen local says he hopes it can help others understand their emotions, just as it did when he first put pen to paper.

“I remember I sat down and thought about my friend Paul, I had time to look at it all differently by then, from an outsider’s perspective,” Simon said.

Delicately crafted, each line of the poem is a powerful commentary on how suicide can be portrayed to the bereaved.

But it also speaks on the complexities of suicide, and how it can be discussed even 20 years later.

“It can be a little bit raw to hear those words, but even after 20 years of reciting the poem to many people, there is still a lot of resonance to them.

“The good thing is that things have changed in the last 20 years, people are more open about it and come to a place like selectability, because the people that I work with here are marvellous.

As this week is Men’s Health Week, Simon also reflects on how conversations about suicide have changed within his lifetime, and how it has become a part of community rhetoric.

“I have had male friends ask me if I am doing alright, people would not have done that years ago.

“They say to speak up to your mates if you are struggling, and here he was actually doing it.

“It is a really good thing that the world has changed in that respect, because we may lose fewer people because of it.”

After more than two decades, Simon’s artistic approach to speaking about suicide has been immortalised in a film, for Suicide Prevention Queensland.

Film – William Taylor

Audio – Major Minor Productions