Had you asked me in my early twenties whether I would become a poet, I would have pretty confident in saying "no". How wrong I was.
My decision to leave dental school after 3-and-a-half years changed this. Physically and emotionally drained by a system uninterested in helping patients take hold of their health, and with a nebula of thoughts swirling around my head, I began writing. My healing and sensemaking truly began when I turned to poetry, taking the raw experiences and ideas of my life and creating something new from them.
I was humbled by the messages that I got from those my poems graced. I realised my words have power-that I have something meaningful to say. So I continued writing and continued sharing, releasing several widely-acclaimed books and developing novel workshops to use poetry in aid of wellbeing.
You can find me online at tom-shaw. uk.
