ZANESVILLE, Ohio — CreatiVets, a nonprofit organization that empowers veterans to seek healing through the arts and music, has provided Army veteran Joshua Wilson his own path to healing.
Wilson writes from personal experience of his two tours of duty in Iraq.
“This is true in my mind, if for in no others, heaven holds a place in the fight for my brothers,” said Wilson.
For the Zanesville native, his words are the culmination of a long journey
“I’ve talked with enough people with enough experience since then that have helped me to realize PTSD looks different on everybody,” said Wilson. “It seemed like if I went to the VA and they were committing resources to me, that I was somehow taking those resources away from other people that needed them more than I did.”
But during that time, Wilson wrote short lines of poetry about survivors’ guilt, and about a friend and convoy commander, Army Master Sargent Shawn Hannon, a Grove City native who lost his life ten years ago in Afghanistan.
“I looked up to that man, and he was there when I needed guidance,” said Wilson.
In the months that followed, the father of two eventually found solace when he applied to and was paired up with the nonprofit CreatiVets, which empowers veterans to seek healing through the arts and music.
Wounded Warrior Richard Casper Co-founded the group and recently gave Wilson the opportunity to travel to Nashville and visit the historic Grand Ole Opry, as well as have his words transformed to song by country music star Drake White.
“My ultimate goal is to transition their what I call warrior brain to artist brain, so they can think differently about their experiences and ultimately overcome and heal from them through the storytelling portion of it,” said Casper.
Wilson said the experience has been humbling, and he’s had the opportunity to pick up a guitar for the first time and take lessons.
“The Men That Make The Thunder” song is released on Veterans Day via Spotify.
Wilson said he will continue to write poetry and looks forward to his future endeavors with CreatiVets.
“Is anybody gonna go through the amount of healing out of my song as I did? No. But I’ve already had a number of veterans come up to me and say, ‘Man, I’m glad that you went out and did that. I’m glad you put that out there, I can relate to what you’re saying. I hope that it continues to grow,’” said Casper.
