autumn moonlight--
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut.
presenting a sunny face
though my brain feels full of worms
Basho & Cie
Notes:
The Hokku (Haiku) stanza of this Tan Renga was written by Matsuo Basho. The Akegu (closing stanza) was written by me.
Matsuo Basho was born in 1644 and died 28 November 1694. As a point of coincidence, my father died on 28 November 2010.
As Chèvrefeuille explains, Basho's Haiku references his desires for a man. Basho was a Samurai, and, as with the warriors of ancient Greece, homosexuality was considered normal and acceptable. Relationships between older men and adolescent boys were also considered acceptable.
I do feel that homosexuality is normal and acceptable, but I think it is better not to have sexual relationships between adults and youth.
My portion of the poem does not refer to my sexuality. Being heterosexual, I never found myself in the position of keeping my sexuality a secret. It refers to living with mental illness in a society which stigmatizes people who struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts.
Some people think that in this age of readily available psych meds, no-one should struggle with psychological problems. Many people do not respond well to psych meds, and not all psychological problems are chemical in nature.
Medication makes me feel like I'm underwater. I prefer to deal with the depression when it sets in.
ReplyDeleteSSRI's make me manic and psychotic. Mick Mars from Motley Crue said that when the doctor put him on an SSRI, it made him psychotic. Rather than concluding that the medication was at fault because the man had never previously exhibited signs of psychosis, the fool of a doctor concluded that Mick had become schizophrenic. After a few horrible weeks dealing with the side effects of the antipsychotic medications, Mick informed the doctor that while he might be a high school dropout he did know how to do research, and that from what he had learned, schizophrenia generally manifests in a person's late teens or early 20's, not in their mid-fifties. Mick stopped taking the anti-psych meds and his cognition returned to normal.
DeleteThe man's problems stemmed from chronic pain.
Doctors are often idiots.