People of the Night

Observations and personal experience in a psychiatric ward.

a lonely footfall.  secrets untold.

another whisper in the blackness of the night.

a single teardrop. voices nonstop

accusing, blaming, never giving up the fight.

 

a broken mirror.  red river

flowing to the sea of dark dispair

a screaming horror. visions linger

in corners of a mind in disrepair

Reviews

[zainul]

This is a great write that depicted a special situation of human life from your own experience.
The conversation on the poem will be very helpful for the concerned persons.
Thanks for sharing and hope you will be free from the state of disrepair soon.

[Lourisa]

Thanks for your kind review, Zainul. Writing without experience is meaningless so at least I have that to be thankful for. Thanks for stopping by.

[zainul]

You are most welcome,Lourisa.
I feel very blessed that I have met a lovely poet this morning from Bangladesh.

[R. L. Hill]

Okay, so wow....I feel the presence in your words. Makes me shiver, understanding these two lines personally myself "a screaming horror. visions linger / in corners of a mind in disrepair"

[Lourisa]

Thanks for the review, Q.

[R. L. Hill]

Most welcome!

[Dark Tower]

Beautifully written. Powerfully expressed emotions entwined with breathtaking descriptions made this a really amazing read.

[Lourisa]

Thanks for your kind review, B.C

[Calissa Knox]

Beautiful poetry!
Descriptive, yet full of emotion.

My favorite stanza is, "a broken mirror. red river
flowing to the sea of dark despair".
I could picture that so vividly.

I could almost hear the dark and beautiful music,
playing in the background as I read this...

[Lourisa]

Thank you for your kind review, Feather.

[Calissa Knox]

You're welcome, Lourisa!

[Pryde Foltz]

I think we falter when we disregard the feelings an ideas of those deemed mentally ill. Healing requires empathy and empathy requires listening. (BTW: my son whose dad is a Kiwi is named Wellington.) Great word choice and loved the period stops. You created well the feel one might get from a night on mental health ward.

[Lourisa]

That is absolutely true, Pryde. Some of the best painters, writers, musicians, philosophers have suffered mental illness. Spending time in the ward I realized that the far greater percentage of the lot of us were artist of one form or another. I remember thinking in there "What are we all doing in here? We should be out there and they in here."
Ah, Wellington is my favourite city of all the ones I've visited.
Thanks for your thoughtful review.

[Sami Khalil]

This was a very good poem...Thank you for sharing...:).................

[Muse]

Never been there physically...mentally...well that is up for debate. I can only sympathize with my imagination. Thank you for sharing.

[Chris]

What IS sanity - when we accept being broken as normal and the perception of our world has to match another's? Perception is a chemical imbalance or progression of synapse dysfunction that empowers us to reboot our existence like a disabled software program via Control/Alt/Delete.

There for but the taking of one more breath any of us could be.

A powerful perception that paused me in mid review and had me re-decide what I was hearing afterall. We all survive parts of this perception, but I believe very few can survive the whole gestalt.

[Lourisa]

Thank you for your insights and thoughtful review, Chris. And I agree, very view can indeed survive the whole composition but like someone once said, the magic must be in the attempt.

[Lydia Shutter]

Raw and honest observations here....the imagery is so intense! "a mind in disrepair"......interesting way of expressing it. Psychologically, can any of us be "fixed"? Can we be perfect and fit into a cookie cutter mold? I don't know if that is even possible. A psychiatric ward is a frightening prison! Well written. Lydi**

[Lourisa]

Thanks for your review, Lydia. I fully agree with your cookie cutter analogy, and I for one would not want to live in a world where that could be the case. As for the ward, the idea scared me but the reality was not that bad (not always). Looking at and talking to my fellow "inmates" I sometimes wondered why were we inside and the rest outside. Shouldn't it be the other way around? Anyway, have a beautiful day.

[Neon]

I do agree with the poem. Nice artistry.

[Lourisa]

Ah, thanks for your nice comment, Neon. Nice hearing from you.