Veterans · Military Families · All who have suffered trauma

A world of words that heals

FLOW is a safe, open community where poems, stories, letters and lyrics help people process trauma, share their truth, and feel less alone — in honour of our late patron, Dame Vera Lynn.

Scottish Charitable Organisation · SC050666 · Don't worry about spelling — just write

20%

of people exposed to mass violence develop PTSD

8M+

adults diagnosed with PTSD in a given year

more likely — women are disproportionately affected by PTSD

Latest contributions

View all →

Animal War Memorial

When the horse rears up to canter Off to war, he smells the battle From afar and hears the shouting And the thunder of the captains. On him rattle the quiver, the Flashing spear and the javelin and, With fierceness, he swallows the ground. And on November’s darkening...

Maelstrom to Monochrome

Sinuous in my silk gown, I slip seamlessly though the enveloping white mist, its droplets, glinting like diamonds, caught in the tendrils of my hair. The mist is ice cold, alive and swirling and I am flung around like spun sugar. Scarlet streams of blood, leave my...

“Echoes in My Mind”

I’m standing in your silence, but it’s loud inside my head. My memories consume me; they follow where I tread. Every step I take, there’s a ghost I cannot see from wars I left so long ago that still aren't done with me. I’m trying to escape from the demons I can't...

Autism aND Me

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a term that I dislike, it makes me feel I’m damaged, like an old and broken bike.   Unlike that old and broken bike I’m actually on fire, I think of many different things, I create, and I inspire.   Tenacious and fixated, and...

The Dawn

July twenty seventh two thousand and nine A mammogram check, well worth the time I wait in the car so I don’t have to pay Then Debs made that call on her mobile to say I might have the cancer, (I heard her voice shake) The seconds took minutes, please let me awake? I...

P T S D 1

Remember, too, those military men With memories buried deep Lifelong scars within their soul Interrupting them when they sleep The horrors of the battlefield The screams of the wounded and the smell With destruction all around them These things they remember well...

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

The Dawn

July twenty seventh two thousand and nine A mammogram check, well worth the time I wait in the car so I don’t have to pay Then Debs made that call on her mobile to say I might have the cancer, (I heard her voice shake) The seconds took minutes, please let me awake? I...

P T S D 1

Remember, too, those military men With memories buried deep Lifelong scars within their soul Interrupting them when they sleep The horrors of the battlefield The screams of the wounded and the smell With destruction all around them These things they remember well...

P T S D

Remember too those Military Men With Memories buried deep Lifelong scars within their soul Interrupting them when they sleep The horros of the battlefireld The screams of wounded and the smell With destruction all around them These things they remember well Although...

Freddy Gilroy

Freddy Gilroy Scarborough We’re back in Yorkshire once again In Scarboough on a Winter’s day Where Ray Lonsdale has created another Statue To sit here on the Promenade on display The twice than lifelike subject this time Sitting here facing the Sea at North Bay...

Brothers in arms

Brothers in Arms It’s hard to interpret this image As we sit and sadly stare As though left by a Guardian Angel To remind all of us who care The thoughts of many Military men Of battles fought won or lost The smell the noise and the sadness Perhaps their colleagues...

Tommy

Artist Ray Lonsdale Tommy Imagine if you will the thoughts of this Soldier Sitting not far from Seaham’s shore Home once again on British soil Away from the horrors of War All this depicted by the Artist Of this moving image we see The setting here in loneliness...

My dinner guests

I didn’t expect him to turn up with a monkey. Very cute though; the monkey, that is, not David. He said he had picked it up in Indonesia and out of all the animals he had filmed, he had found this one hard to resist. So, as Mij the otter, had become part of Gavin...

Model Manuscript Retribution Part four

For the next two days Nick emerged only for the toilet. He worked into the early hours of the mornings and then slept on the very comfortable couch at night. Each of the two days at mealtimes a tray was placed outside of the study door with plain but well prepared...

Model Manuscript Retribution Part five

Two days later they flew by Quantas Airlines to Changi Airport, Singapore. During the flight Nick had time to acquaint himself with his new assistant Twinkle. Born in East London to Gillie and Ron Campbell, the boy had been a bit of a rebel at school and after a spell...

Model Manuscript Retribution Part six

It was dark and quiet in the basement cellar of the office block with just the murmur of the air conditioning unit. A mouse scampered across the floor then stopped, all nerves trembling because it could smell cheese and was hungry enough to risk anything. Carefully...

Model Manuscript Retribution Part seven

Paul met them at Zurich airport as instructed. His wound was only a bullet graze to the temple. The ambushers left him as dead, but he was able to follow them to a warehouse on the perimeter of Zurich airport. The main floor of the building was used as a meat storage...

The Model Manuscript. Retribution Part One

It was a winter night, wet and dark: not the sort in which to be walking back to the hotel. Christ, Nick Alum thought, I should have driven to the meeting, but it's too late now. Better to be curled around a good book and a fine bottle of Australian red or white wine....

How to contribute

Share your poem, story, letter or lyrics with the FLOW community — it's free and simple.

Write freely

Don't worry about spelling or grammar. We want your words, in your way, exactly as you write them.

Register

Fill in our simple form to create your free FLOW account — it only takes a minute.

Submit

Upload your poem, story, letter or lyrics using our easy submission form.

Go live

After a friendly review, your writing goes live on FLOW for the world to read and respond to.

"Through my own experiences in talking with the boys and girls about their thoughts on war and how they felt about going into action… through poetry they express themselves with absolute clarity, deep feeling and simplicity. I only have to read 'In Flanders Field' or Kipling's 'Tommy' to fully appreciate and be thankful for the beauty of FLOW. We must never forget them."

Dame Vera Lynn DBE — Our late patron, 1917–2020

Dame Vera Lynn, patron of FLOW for All