I heard about a competition for poetry addressing the issues surrounding mental health here for which our own Megha Sood is a finalist. Those who know me even vaguely would appreciate that I am not foreign to these issues, and take them very seriously, but also that I don’t think anything should be taken too seriously, all the time.
So whilst what follows might be a bit tongue in cheek, and a bit cheap, and a bit trite, I hope you find it not entirely so. My own mental health, at the moment, seems to limit me to about 5 minutes of cohesive thought at a time. So this is my 5 minutes worth.
Obviously I would be too late to enter the competition, but nor would I dare to do so with this. I, more than most, recognise that 5 minutes of scribbling at the kitchen table wins no prizes.
So join me in wishing Megha the very best of luck.
***
Some days I’m feeling pensive
Some days I’m sort of sad
Some days I’m apprehensive
Though some days I feel glad
Some days are sort of special
But other days are bad
I do my tricks. I get my kicks
But some days I go mad
I’ll admit that I’m impulsive
I can be compulsive too
You find me so repulsive
Because I’m so different to you
But it’s not a point of difference
Just a different point of view
But it’s too late to imitate
So what am I to do?
They found me on the street one night
And they kicked me in the head
They had no right, but I had no fight
So they left me there for dead
I suppose that I had stumbled on
A place I shouldn’t tread
Though way down deep I’m still asleep
I woke up in this bed
So now I’m in a hospital
That treats insanity
Where they tell me that they have this plan
Of understanding me
They’re pointing down a tunnel
At a light I cannot see
But they give me lots of tablets
So now I get my kicks for free
***
Richmond Road 
Great poem! Is that an asylum in the photo? When I was in college, my college was known as the best small college in our part of the country… that was on a hill overlooking a mental hospital. It was quite the joke. But I wish that mental hospitals looked like the above picture in real life. Too often they’re sterile like actual hospitals (or they’re in actual hospitals) and there’s just a sense of white-walled boredom. If I had to stay in a mental hospital, I’d want to stay in the one pictured above for darned sure! I can imagine the shrieks in the night and the agonized wails. There’s something to be said for the old-fashioned asylums of yore.
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That is Kent County Lunatic Asylum. I sort of like the term ‘lunatic’. I know it’s not very PC these days, but it has a playful ring to it.
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HA HA! Yeah, lunatic asylum sounds dreadful in modern times! 😀 I like “lunatic” too, because it’s based on the theory that people go crazy due to the cycles of the moon!
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I’ll admit to dabbling in the poetry of depression as well. I believe mine involved screaming at bars of a cage or something mature and poetic like that.
I sincerely hope you are able to extend beyond your five minutes soon.
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I don’t dabble in the poetry of depression. I dabble in the depression of poetry. It’s getting shorter, actually. I’m down to about 27 seconds now.
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Free Drugs AND meals, bed, etc? Sounds like a holiday resort, not a bad thing😂😂 But I’m kind of twisted, so don’t pay attention to me.
I once wrote a stinker of a poem called “Chorus In My Head” about all the “What if” worries running the hamster wheel in my noggin. mental health and mental illness are very important topics. They should be treated the same as physical health/illness… with as much humor as possible! 🌺
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I couldn’t agree with you more.
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Insanity talk in the comments, I am strangely stimulated (giggles)
I enjoyed your poem, filled me with emotion about the assault. People are so cruel to what they don’t understand.
“So now I’m in a hospital
That treats insanity
Where they tell me that they have this plan
Of understanding me”
I have long given up on these quacks helping me understand why my brain is upside down. I’m weird and I have accepted that. I have learned over the years to keep my thoughts to myself because I found myself 302’ed several times…lol. I knitted, cheeked my meds, flirted with the male nurses and played cards with the people for 3 days, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it ❤
I'm following ❤
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Insanity is both underrated and overrated. It’s hard to get the balance right. Thank you for your kind thoughts.
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