PTSD Therapy and Poetry

PTSD Poems Other Poems Birds, Beasts & Bavaria

Welcome to my Website.

This is a showcase for my poetry, which was initially prompted by my experiences in Iraq between 2004 and 2009, but which has expanded to include a much wider range of subjects.

In May 2010 I was diagnosed to be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and this site was originally intended to provide an outlet for me, but also to offer encouragement to others suffering from PTSD. You can read my PTSD poems and an account of how they came to be written HERE

I now write about whatever takes my fancy - the natural world, foreign travel, art - and you can see my latest work by looking in the Birds, Beasts and Bavaria page.

You'll also find links to video of me reading some of these poems in the text, for example

TELEVISION CENTRE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg4carWN7pA

HOSTILE ENVIRONMENTS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40dBGuAr7lw

'PTSD Patrick' by Inge Schlaile (artist copyright)

Some very good people have said some very nice things about my poems. Here's a sample:

“Working in places like Baghdad takes its toll. Patrick has found an elegant way of coping: he has turned it into poetry.”

John Simpson, BBC World Affairs Editor

I recommend Patrick Howse’s poetry to anyone wanting to understand a side of conflict reporting which is not often talked about outside journalistic circles, and rarely within.

James Rodgers, author Reporting Conflict, London Metropolitan University

“His poems are extremely vivid, beautifully written and very moving.”

Gabriel Gatehouse, former BBC Baghdad Correspondent

"Patrick’s poetry is at times gentle and moving, yet also stark and harrowing. Through it we get a glimpse of what it means when the journalist needs a flak jacket to go to work. Even more important, we get a sense of the story that can’t be told on air."

Sandi Kwawchenco Altner, novelist, author of ‘Ravenscraig’