Acquainted

The Darkness Comes, Danny Collins

On the street it's

Easy addiction

Gets you through the day

The night.

What makes you well is

Seeking help

What stops you is

Not knowing how to ask

Pride keeps you

From asking. Me

I rarely get ill

The outside life makes you immune.

I have been acquainted with the night

Sunday night went into a low

Went under, by a canal, under a bridge

Sat early hours watching the stars

It's looking up, isn't it?

Sometimes I think

When I can't get any lower

Only one way left - look up.

Someone asked "Don't you want

To get back to what you were?"

I said no. Said

That's what put me here.

Danny Collins

9 June 2015

Poem from The Homeless Library, the first history of British homelessness. Told through poems, interviews, artworks and handmade books. 

A documentary film about the project can be found here.