Oceans, Tears and Realization

"Oceans, Tears, and Realization", is a collection of poems that discuss the confusion and questions that come with depression, love and the mental state a person can feel through.

I wrote "Oceans, Tears, and Realization" when I was facing some low points in the year 2018. I have dealt with mental health growing up. There was always this feeling but never a word or words to describe the feeling. Whether it be a good feeling or a questionable one, there never seems to be a way of communicating that. I started writing last year when I fell deeply for someone, they made all the things that I worried about disappear. They offered the comfort that I haven't felt and then after no communication between us and just like that depression grew with the passing day. And that's when I started to make words to what I was feeling. These poems are not just about the issues we face mentally but also giving a voice to those actual emotions from my perspective. Subjects like love, loneliness, confusion and more come into the form of words.

Ali Al-Arithy is a Detroit based poet that was born in a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia. His parents were born in Diwaniya, Iraq and he identifies as being an Iraqi-American. He started writing at the age of twelve and has been writing ever since. His first collection of poems is a book titled "Safe:" was released in 2018. The subjects that he writes about are related to mental health, loss, reflection, capability, dependence on oneself and acceptance. He is a graduate from the University of Michigan-Dearborn and pursuing his masters in Creative Writing at Eastern Michigan University.