
Lockdown has come with challenges for us all.
Many of us have struggled to find the motivation to work or create.
But not Anika Bathia Drysdale.
The writer and mother has used her lockdown experience to write moving and insightful poems, which she hopes will bring comfort and help to others.
Here, she talks to the Queendom of Fife about her work and her plans for her poetry collection.
Poetry for times in need

I have been using lockdown to write and want to share my work to help others.
The poems were written to help people in times of need.
They were inspired by the lockdown during the Coronavirus, but they are relevant to any big issue that comes up as well.
To share them, I have set up a special Facebook group called Anika Speaks where I will be posting some of the poems I have written.
Do you have courage?
Anika has also agreed to kindly share her poems with Queendom of Fife readers and the first in the series she will share is below, entitled Do you have courage?
Do you have the courage to be the change?
In a world full of darkness where nobody listens
Will you be the one to make that difference
And the answer to their wishes?

It’s not always easy to be that one
Sometimes you will stand alone
Waiting for others to join you
Stepping out into the truth

They lie in wait to hear your voice
To find the answers that they need
You are the one to heal the differences
And bring them to that world of light

Do you have the courage for this?
Can you be the one to come to?
Will you sometimes stand alone
And be brave when that moment comes?

I’m not saying this is simple
I’m not denying the truth in life
To make that difference you must stand
And be confident in what you say


“I wanted them to touch people, no matter what they are going through. And I am releasing a book soon called Brave New World where everyone can find them collected together, along with some never before seen anywhere else.”
This is beautiful Anika!