Poetry and mental illness: let's hear it for the Survivors
“I was in a lot of asylums, and now I’m in a lot of universities.” That was how John O’Donoghue, pictured, introduced one of his poems at Perceptions of Difference, an event at the Poetry Library during Unlimited, a festival celebrating the artistic vision and originality of disabled artists. This event was organised by Disability Arts Online, celebrating its 10th anniversary, and Survivors’ Poetry, an organisation created by and for survivors of mental distress, set up in 1991.
As the Poetry Librarian, Chris McCabe, said in introducing the event, poetry and mental illness “is now a major strand of contemporary poetry”. He quoted Roddy Lumsden’s words: “A poet confessing to mental illness is like a weightlifter admitting to muscles.”
O’Donoghue’s memoir, Sectioned: A Life Interrupted, was the Mind Book of the Year in 2010. He has had poetry collections published by Pighog and Waterloo Press, and now teaches creative writing at the University of Westminster. He read a poem, ‘The Cost of Sanity’, after Dietrich Bonhoeffer, which lists social workers, benefits advisers, key workers, housing officers, probation officers, policemen, magistrates, and prison officers, and concludes with these lines: “I spoke the walls, they ignored me / I spoke to the voices, for now there was no one else.”
He mentioned that poets Robert Lowell and John Clare both spent time in the same Northampton hospital, over a century apart. O’Donoghue, who chaired Survivors' Poetry from 2000-2005, is a regular contributor to Disabilty Arts Online, edited by Colin Hambrook, who introduced the poets at the Poetry Library.
First to read was Hilary Porter, one of the four founder members of Survivors’ Poetry, who with Jo Bidder, Frank Bangay, and Peter Campbell, set up Survivors with Arts Council help in 1990-91, first establishing workshops and performances in London, which led to groups in other areas, including Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, and in Scotland. Spiders featured in more than one poem of Hilary Porter’s, including ‘Those Days’: “Those nights when sleep won’t come … spider on the wall is a harbinger of doom”. Another poem contained the wry observation that a face painted by Picasso “deep-lined with sorrow” could now be seen adorning an art gallery shopping bag.
After John O’Donoghue came Debjani Chatterjee, poet, children’s writer and storyteller, and a patron of Survivors’ Poetry, which publishes anthologies through its imprint Survivors’ Press, and also individual collections produced from collaborations between survivor poets and volunteer poet mentors. Chatterjee, awarded an MBE in 2008 , is one of those mentors. She read poems by three “remarkable” women – Amita Patel, who died in 2010, Gail Campbell, and Claire McLaughlin.
Another founder-member of Survivors’ Poetry, Frank Bangay, pictured, rounded off the night in rousing style. A long-time campaigning poet, known as the “bard of Hackney”, he had been organising similar events before Survivors’ Poetry was set up. An emphatic and passionate performer, some of his poems seemed infused with gospel spirit: “The proud rhythm will keep beating inside … and yes, we will be strong this time.” Another poem, which included the lines: “We became scapegoats, for so many leftwing comedians’ jokes”, was “maybe a bit dated now”, he said. Let’s hope so, anyway. In a rueful reference to his figure, he concluded with ‘Comfort-eating Blues’, accompanying himself on harmonica, and aided by Natasha on guitar.
Afterwards Joe Bidder said the formation of Survivors’ Poetry, back in the early 90s, had been “just at the right moment. We touched a well-spring. The Arts Council phoned me up up. They wanted an organisation run by mental health system survivors. Within a month I put together a programme of work.” Times were harder financially now, but Survivors’ Poetry was still there, with regular open mic nights, too: “It’s great that it’s kept going.”
Greg Freeman
