A few years back Mandurah electrician Craig Waterman did something unexpected and starting performing poems he had written in front of his mates.
After battling debilitating depression for a decade, Mr Waterman decided he would put pen to paper about his experiences and put on record everything he, his family and his friends had lived through.
He said he wrote a few poems at first just for people close to him.
They told him he needed to get the work published and, instead, he ignored them.
"But they wouldn't stop nagging," Mr Waterman said.
"I'm an electrician that writes a bit of bush poetry now and again, I don't know how to publish anything."
Since then, he has won prizes for his work and released a collection of his poems online.
Mr Waterman said another reason he had taken to expressing himself through poetry was because he wanted to encourage others to speak out about their emotions.
He said his children had been to five funerals over the last 18 months of classmates who had died from suicide.
As a consequence he felt he needed to find a way to connect to people.
"Even the older blokes, blokes my age, there's a lot of guys out there my age who are suffering as well," he said.
"A lot of blokes out there I know don't know how to express themselves.
"It's actually part of what's helped me improve over the last few years.
"We have a Thursday night crew, we get together and us blokes have the Furnissdale/Barragup Parliament and there's a dozen ministers and I'm the speaker of the house."
At times all of the families get together, but Mr Waterman said sometimes it was just the men.
"And that's about blokes being able to cry on another bloke's shoulder," he said.
"You need to have that space and time and guys have to be able to understand that it's not an unmanly thing to do, it's a natural part of life and you just have to be able to let those emotions out."
Poem: Heart in the Bush...Soul in the Sea
His plans for the future were about performing his poems to as many people who might appreciate them as possible, from schools to old people's homes.
He said he was also writing a novel about Bali where he used to run a business and had his poems performed at Anzac Day ceremonies.
To read Mr Waterman's work visit his website at suburbanbushpoet.com or look for him on Facebook.
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