Blog of Oonah V Joslin -- please visit my Parallel Oonahverse at WordPress

where I post stories and poems that have not been seen elsewhere - also recipes and various other stuff. http://oovj.wordpress.com/

and see me At the Cumberland Arms 2011









Monday 19 October 2009

Poem at BwS

Definitions could be defined as a 'found poem'. I found it because of my husband's studies and the story of W.C. Minor's life was so ironic I just had to write about this remarkable and troubled man. It is about the curse of mental illness which affects the lives of not only those who suffer from it - whatever 'it' is. The definitions keep changing to suit the times. We no longer call people mad, cretinous, lunatic, criminally insane...

In Minor's day Schitzophrenic was a term that hadn't yet been coined. It was undoubtedly the label they would have used in the C20th. Here, in the C21st, the label might be different. We are still awaiting the breakthrough that will lead to a cure.

http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue357/definitions.html