What if We All Became Preachers? by Laurenne Kredentser
What if we all became preachers?
Us madfolk
Who’ve been locked up, lobotomized, and drugged into a living death
Who’ve been tied to trees and left to...
A Journey Through a Restaurant by Lea Harrington
Walking through this restaurant
to the restroom -
always in the back,
of course
A gauntlet
one must walk
to go
where one needs to go
People look at me,
stare,
laugh at me.
What...
Shame by Destiny Woodward
There is a vastness of sorrow and emptiness within me that I can’t describe. The sting of shame, the flames of regret consume me....
Psychiatry Gave Me PTSD by Nicola Clare
Psychiatry gave me PTSD.
Psychiatry gave me PTSD
A silhouette now
Or a hologram
Wedged between sheets of sound
Proof, somehow
Shatter proof glass
Stuck
For an eternity; cast,
A mad ranting lunatic!
Labels...
You Are A World by Tara Rae Behr
You are a world.
You are not a sign,
a category, a personality,
a label, a diagnosis, a spectacle,
a thing to be analyzed, or figured out.
Others who...
Head on a Stick by Jennifer Chapman
I feel a push and pull inside of me,
Deep in the pit of my soul.
Roots stretch to the ends of my stomach,
Tangled with bones—
A...
We’re Not Settling by Jeffrey Powell
when they’re arresting, stifling, tranquilizing
not standing for our backfire
what’s really wrong - can they answer that
why can’t they promise not to mire
At first we...
The Day I Became Schizophrenic
Schizophrenia, to me, is nothing more than a word. All it really means is that you experience psychosis on a regular enough basis that it’s a factor in your life. And that you actually do, as the word “schizophrenia” indicates, have a mind that you share with some sort of outside presence.
When the Lunatics Arise by Bonnie Schell
“It is the very error of the moon. She comes more near the earth than she was wont. And makes men mad.” - Shakespeare,...
incantation (Gleaning the Truth/Torching the Rest) by Jacquese Armstrong
trees
stark and barren used to upset me
i knew how they felt standing naked
before a mocking world waiting for a season
to cover the indiscretions of...
Virginal Autonomy by Nidhi Agrawal
After Sylvia Plath ~
“I have given my name and my day-clothes up to the nurses
And my history to the anaesthetist and my body...
To Live and (Almost) Die in L.A.: A Survivor’s Tale
After 25 years of chronic emergency, 22 mental hospitalizations, a stint at a “community mental health center,” 13 years in a "board & care," repeated withdrawals from addictions to legal drugs, and a 12-year marriage, I plan to live every last breath out as a survivor, an advocate, and an artist.
From Maggie’s Love to IDHS Hell by Marci Webber
Love we shared with exquisite tenderness
With the Dr’s scripts has long since vanished.
They say it wasn’t my responsibility
Not guilty because of acute insanity.
Yet they...
On the verge of suicide by Rick Barooah
These are the last breaths you take; these are the last blood cells to rush through
your veins. The walls of the room are the...
Too by Monica Khadijah Davies
My nose is too long
My hands are too big
My feet have grown
You see they did
My belly is fat
My tits are small
My legs are lean
I...
TRUE STORY by Jasmine Marshall
i went to the gym the other day and got hit on by a man over twice my age he asked me about my...
Transform by Ashleigh
Fear is running our lives. Fear of being different. Fear of being inadequate. Fear of being not good enough.
Are You Ok? by Alex K.
Are you taking your meds?
Are you right in the head?
Are you doing ok?
Am I behind on pills today?
You seem manic
More like you can’t stand...
Moonlight Mystery by Jason Aull
Lively do the shadows play
Within the darkened lonely way
Few dare tread along the deep
Where hatreds children play with sleep
Rage and laughter fill the day
As...
F.O.M.H. by illexotic
Listen to "F.O.M.H.":
I wrote this poem when I was struggling with my mental health in college on the back of a quiz I didn't...
The Light Prevailed by Diana Spore
The primary wall stood strong and tall, until she started to chisel her way through
She had been told that she would never recover --
From...
Hard of Hearing by Francis Fernandes
I kept telling her that Carsten Dahl
is not Carson Dyle for the obvious reason
the former doodles Danish bebop
on the piano with a sort of...
I Wish I Were by Ken Segal
I wish I were....
I wish I were a dolphin, just a-swimming in the sea,
I would swim and fish forever, a happy swimmer I would...
A Love Poem for the Girls with ‘Borderline’ by Rebecca Donaldson
I want to write a love poem for the girls who have been branded with, “Borderline.”
I want to write a love poem for the...
Fractured Soul Factory by K.G. Munro
Many of us are broken
before we can even see the cracks
As we walk blindly through life
Enduring the fear and hatred
that we are steeped in...
