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A Schizophrenic (Free verse) by amanda_dcosta

He shakes his head, Rolls on his bed, Speaks gibberish With eyes deep red. He fights and kicks, He shouts and spits, And makes his family Lose their wits. With hair unkept, Mood, not his best He lives his life A real test. He's labelled 'mad' Inside he's sad, No one knows him Nor understands. Alas, we call ourselves human And yet what do we see We're totally numb to those desperate Whose lives we do not feel. He's crying out, oh! don't you know He's longing to be near To anyone who'll love him And want to call him 'dear'. So heed his call and do not tarry Although with him there's cause for worry. Or only when we're in his shoes We'll understand the schizo news.

zodiac 24-Jan-06/8:38 AM
re "I have had no personal experience with a schiz" -

The poem aside (I liked it), I wonder why you'd be compelled to write a poem about something you have no experience with. There are so many things you DO have experience with, insights into life in Goa or being a Christian in a place where Christianity is the minority religion that could really enrich us readers' knowledge - yet you (like Dovina with her Racism poems) might as well have written about life as a purple Mars-tortoise, for all you know of real schizophrenics. Why write about schizophrenia at all? Is it because Mental Illness (like Racism) is one of those capital-letter Topics For Poetry in our minds? Take my word for it: No poetry is really about Mental Illness. Or Racism, for that matter. Poetry touches on those things, but it's always firstly about your own experience.

I'm not trying to give you a hard time. (Like I said, I did like the poem.) My suggestion would be, now write one about YOUR REAL EXPERIENCE. If you'll let me make another suggestion, I'd like it to be about being Christian in a non-Christian country. Describe walking to work past Hindu sadhus, hearing the Muslim call-to-prayer in the middle of evening mass, knowing the laws of your home country aren't based on your own moral code - whatever makes up your actual experience. I think that would be ace. Thanks.




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