Beyond Bedlam: Poems Written Out of Mental Distress - Softcover

Ken Smith and Matthew Sweeney have made their selection from more than 5,000 poems contributed to the Bethlem & Maudsley National Benefit Poetry Project by poets working as individuals or in groups like Survivors' Poetry. They have set these new poems in a continuing tradition of writers who have created poetry out of the extremes of mental distress, including John Bunyan, Christopher Smart, John Clare, Fernando Pessoa, Weldon Kees, Robert Lowell, John Berryman, David Gascoyne, Anne Sexton, Allen Ginsberg, Sylvia Plath, Paul Durcan, Sean O'Brien, Iain Crichton Smith and Jean `Binta' Breeze.

I Don't Remember by Kevin Allen
Arriving Early by Joe Asser
Don't Flinch by Joe Asser
The Shadow-board by Jill Bamber
Calling Back The Body (with Extracts From A Relaxation Tape) by Bruce Barnes
The Visitors by Elizabeth (1924-) Bartlett
Not A Buttercup by Carol Batton
Blacker Than Before by Claire Bayard-white
Song by Thomas Lovell Beddoes
The Song Of The Demented Priest by John Berryman
Hospital For Defectives by Thomas Blackburn
The Angel That Presided O'er My Birth by William Blake
Madman I Have Been Called by William Blake
Riddym Ravings (the Mad Woman's Poem) by Jean Binta Breeze
On The Run From Tooting Bec Hospital by Martin Brownlee
Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners (therefrom) by John Bunyan
Early Evening by Larry Butler
Paquida by Louise C. Callaghan
I Am by John Clare
On A Portrait Of William Blake By Francis Bacon by Paul Clark
From One Helpstone Man To Another by Robert Cole
What You Need by Lucy Collard
Clare Leaves High Beach by David Constantine
Ha Ha by Karen Davies
The First Day's Night Had Come by Emily Dickinson
Had We Our Senses by Emily Dickinson
Wrote At Drop-in Centre by Christine Doherty
Clare's Jig #43 by Ian Duhig
Madman by Paul Durcan
The Turkish Carpet by Paul Durcan
In The Ocean by Fatima Durmush
Mr Tosun by Fatima Durmush
To Sleep Perchance To Dream by Nicola East
Hysteria by Thomas Stearns Eliot
The Leaf by Harry Fainlight
Sky Over Bedlam by Wendy French
Autumn Was A Moment Away by Stephen Gardner
The Fabulous Glass by David Gascoyne
Half-an-hour by David Gascoyne
Orpheus In The Underworld by David Gascoyne
A Common Cause by Susan Gaukroger
In Back Of The Real by Allen Ginsberg
Chemical Escape by Cecilia Grainger
The Halls Of Bedlam by Robert Ranke Graves
The Owl And The Pussycat by Nikki Green
My Son by Mary Guckian
To God by Ivor Gurney
Rave On by Jo Harris
The Happiest Woman Alive by Angela S. Hart
The Hole by Angela S. Hart
Today by Angela S. Hart
After The Silence by Dermot Healy
The New Town by Dermot Healy
The Visitors by Paul Henry
The Whispering by Paul Henry
What Can I Say? by Cicely Herbert
Crocuses by Selima Hill
Speak To Me by Selima Hill
The Voice Of Bobo by Selima Hill
Voices Of Bulgaria by Selima Hill
To Zimmer by Johann Christian Friedrich Holderlin
Rampton Special Hospital: Arrival by Danielle Hope
The Sick Image Of My Father Fades by John Horder
A Ward Round Postponed by Mark Jacob
Night Garden Of The Asylum by Elizabeth Jennings
We Call This The Day Room by Charles Johnson
The Intruders by Denise Jones
Counting The Mad by Donald Justice
Mah Towing by Gary Ernest Kay
The Mind Day Centre by Paul Kean
A Musician's Wife by Weldon Kees
By Torchlight by Cath Kilcoyne
And Why Not? by Josie Kildea
At The Braque Exhibition by Josie Kildea
Dilemma by W. (1954-) L.
The Madman Compares God To A Great Light by Nicholas Lafitte
Therefore I Will Not Fear by Nicholas Lafitte
Smile by V. G. Lee
Therapy Room by Bill Lewis
Waking In The Blue by Robert Lowell
The Game by Imma Maddox
Survivor by Mala Mason
A Lesson by Kevin Mccann
The Butterfly by Des Mchale
Door by Patrick Mcmanus
She Thought by Patrick Mcmanus
The Cradle by Valeria Melchioretto
Day Release by Angela Morton
The New Arrival by Aidan Murphy
Ode To A Therapist by Chris Nerney
Interference by Frank Newsum
Poem For A Psychiatric Conference by Sean O'brien
Reactive Depression by Mary O'dwyer
Uncoupling by Eamer O'keeffe
Broken Eggs by Peter Pegnall
I Know I'm A Sick Man by Fernando Antonio Nogueira Pessoa
The Volunteer by Jo Pestel
Eisriesenwelt by Pascale Petit
Frozen Falls by Pascale Petit
Apprehensions by Sylvia Plath
I Am Vertical by Sylvia Plath
Canto 115 by Ezra Pound
The Prisoner by Patricia Pratt
Sunday Morning In Putney by Chris Rawlinson
About How Many by Peter Reading
The Euphemisms by Peter Reading
The Kitchen Chair by John Rety
I Became A Fabulous Opera. I Saw That All Beings by Arthur Rimbaud
Dolor by Theodore Roethke
Heard In A Violent Ward by Theodore Roethke
Bank Holiday Monday by Barbara Saunders
Noon Walk On The Asylum Lawn by Anne Sexton
Ringing The Bells by Anne Sexton
The Starry Night by Anne Sexton
Loss Of Recent Memory by Ruth Silcock
Death Of A Son (who Died In A Mental Hospital Aged One) by Jon Silkin
I Used To Be A Girl by Ifigenija Simonovic
Jubilate Agno: Lines 19-33 by Christopher Smart
The Hand Of God by Harry Smart
Traume Ii by Harry Smart
Sea by Iain Crichton Smith
Night At The Blind Beggar by Kenneth John Smith
Nightnurse by Martin Sonenberg
Leaving Hospital by Peter Street
Bagpipes by Matthew Sweeney
The Second Admission by John Tennant
The Grand Old Duke Of York by Keith Thornley
How Can I Find A Spark Of Reality by Anonymous
The Voice Goes Dumb by Anonymous
Her Large Smile by Scott Verner
The Sound Of My Head by Scott Verner
Gwutt by Hebron Wachenje
Out Of Order by Solomon Blue Waters
Sign Writing by John Welch
The Cave by Charles Kenneth Williams
Villanelle Of The Suicide's Mother by Charles Kenneth Williams
Daycentre Romance by Ray Willmott
The Day Room (from Kendal Ward, Rainhill Mental Hospital) by Kit Wright
The Man Of Distinction (st. Mary Abbots Hospital, Kensington by Kit Wright
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®