You will have to share your life story,

Over and over during the intake process,

And each staff member will say, “I’m sorry that happened to you.”

While turning a page on their clipboard.

Excerpt from Fieldguide For the Mental Hospital

Rite “rite of passage”

A ceremony, passage, or ritual which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another. It requires great endurance and character. A way of marking transitions in the important stages of life. A test of what you’re made of. A coming of age.

I didn’t realize I was writing a book.

Sitting in a psych ward, I scribbled poems across the back of medical paperwork. Wild-eyed portraits drawn in crayon or pencil. I held no interest in my life or future. I made things because they begged to be made and because they allowed brief moments of comfort; leaning into dissociation through the back and forth of my hand on paper.

Since 2014, I’ve created hundreds of poems and drawings. A vital practice as this period included many harrowing experiences: sexual assault, medical malpractice, psych wards, unemployment, and grief but also resourcefulness, compassion, resilience, forgiveness, and courage. Lion’s Rite is an (abridged) collection of that work. It was not written with the intention of being shared which means the images are poems are often visceral. It portrays isolating experiences in a way that with people really connect with.

One of the greatest sources of healing was courageous folks who shared their stories. Bearing witness is an active form of participation- we were all freed through their courage. That’s my goal with this book, that my story will embolden others to be seen as they are. To know they are not alone. To value their own voice.