Just Sit And Be …

There’s an elephant in the room
No one will mention it
He sits with ears flapping about
And makes us all look twits
For each one knows he”s there
But dare not say a word
In case of waking up the beast
Or finding there’s a herd
Of pachyderms instead of just
This single elephant
Like opening a can of worms
What a predicament!
So Dumbo sits there, never moves
In the way of everyone
For to disrupt this elephant
May bring an end to fun
Or would it rather clear a space
In which to live and breathe
If this mammoth weren’t in the way
So much could be achieved
And life might be a tad better
Freed up to simply be
Happy, content, and unimpinged
In fact much more healthy
Elephant in the Room
It rapes the kindest soul
Tampering with truth
Ripping at the heart of reality
Laced in fear
Deluded
Lost
In a miasma of confusion
That depletes relationships
Tears apart self
Deprives the spirit
As a mask on the world
A cloak of psychosis
Where many are too afraid
To ask for help
In a world where stigma
Still wears a thorny crown
And shackles lives
In a mantra of lies
Under the guise of ignorance
Yet still how I pray
That chinks of light
Will break through these clouds
These fumes of misunderstanding
This fog of discrimination
Bias. Prejudice.
So that change will come
And come soon
For now is the time
Time to change
Now!
Can you hear them? Can you see them?
The people in his head
That persecute his every move
And haunt the road he treads
Illusions in neural pathways
Apparitions of his mind
The ignis fatuus that burns
So bright he swears you’re blind
Can you gain the insights he believes
He has much like a gift
Yet which evade your reckoning
In stark paradigm shifts
For though to him these things are real
In your reality
They’re figments of imaginings
That you and I can’t see
But does that support or uphold
Him on this path he leads
Abused by all who laugh and mock
As slowly his heart bleeds
And is it right we judge and scorn
This man whom God has made
Leaving him in his wilderness
Confused; alone; afraid?
For though his thoughts seem abstract and
Beyond perceptual grasp
Let’s more so offer compassion
Give him a hand to clasp
Let’s see the man behind the mask
The person who exists
And with cognisance burn away
The mirage in the mist
There is a fog, a miasma of mind
Consuming the soul
Burdening the heart
With relentless might
That hails from confusion
A place; a world, an existence
That engulfs any who cross the threshold
A fog obscuring even obscurity
In plumes of despair,
In a nebula of persecution
Relentlessly hijacking truth
And holding hostage hope
In a soup of neural corruption
Where the light is stolen
And the swirls of night sweep
Cell by cell
Synapse by synapse
Into the abyss
Trapped, nay lost, in a living hell
From whence there seems no escape
He travels to another place
Heads further back in time
Leaving the present where it is
In shifts cross paradigms
To days gone by where memories
Dance vividly and wild
Affection, comfort, resonance
Back when he was a child
For now as an old man he sits
In chair by the fire side
Where behind vacant eyes a life
Plays out so large and wide
And though it’s inaccessible
To us – hid out of view
He lives in vessels of the past
Whilst sitting there with you
So do not cry my sweet sweet love
Wipe tears away from eyes
For you’ll be always in his heart
Even if in disguise
For what you have and what you had
Is true to cherish dear
And though he may now be elsewhere
Your love’s the constant here
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/An_old_man_diagnosed_as_suffering_from_senile_dementia._Colo_Wellcome_L0026689.jpg.
Locked away in a delusion
In a world that only she
Perceives to be her normal
Yet is not reality
Held hostage by her mind
Constrained by what she feels
Convinced by her conviction
Her beliefs are very real
Suspicious of all others
Fearing what they might do
Concerned by what they’re thinking
Certain for sure, they’re true
A hell bound persecution
With no reprieve; a downward slide
Day in day out a prisoner to
Her thoughts; no place to hide.
Yet have a little sympathy
Step out of judgements way
For she deserves your love and help
To bring in gracious rays
Rays of deep understanding
Compassion and a heart
To see; to help; to be a friend
Will you now do your part?
If you know someone or are yourself suffering from delusions or paranoia please visit http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/paranoia/%23.VO2G_UTfXYU
Don’t patronise. Don’t speak down to
Don’t snub or deign to be
All condescending. Tossing crumbs
Treating her so badly
Because ‘you’ do not think she is
Like you in any way
Or cos she simply acts and thinks
Differently per se
For how she looks, how she behaves
Is really no excuse
For you to bully her so much
And give her your abuse
For in this world of many sorts
Your judgement and your curse
Serves only to twist in a knife
And turn things bad to worse
So instead celebrate each one
Enjoy diversity
And do not mock or jeer at those
With disabilities.
And understand the plight of those
Who suffer stigma too
From mental illness for it could
So easily be you
Lost and over burdened
Unsure of what to do
Confused, perplexed, confounded
Mind melting in a stew
Battered in the mayhem
Frought with deep despair
Bewildered, muddled, frightened
Does anybody care?
Another look at the stigma of mental health leading up to World Mental Health Day on 10 October and the reality that we are still locking the mentally ill away – then behind closed doors; now with labels and the stigma that prevails. Time for change
Once lives locked behind bars
Constrained by irons and jacket
Restricted by fear and doctrine
Stereotyped as mad
Alienated by society
Yet now as wards lies desolate
Lives are still shackled
And men grapple in clichéd fear
Petrified by the diversity of mind
Assigning labels in the place of bars