Poems from the Madhouse

Front Cover
Spinifex Press, Jan 1, 2003 - Poetry - 88 pages

An unflinching, luminous poetry collection exploring schizophrenia, institutional life, and the enduring resilience of the human mind.

Sandy Jeffs invites readers directly into the turbulent inner world of psychosis and recovery in Poems from the Madhouse. Written from lived experience following hospitalizations for schizophrenia, these verses capture the terror of auditory hallucinations, the cold isolation of locked psychiatric wards, and the bittersweet relief found in moments of human kindness.

With searing honesty and sharp wit, this collection breaks down the stigma surrounding mental illness while illuminating:

  • The daily reality of navigating delusions, uninvited voices, and fractured perception.
  • The atmosphere of asylum wards, from clinical interactions to shared bonds among patients.
  • A call for empathy, understanding, and compassion for psychiatric survivors.

This powerful volume offers essential insight for general readers, students, poetry lovers, and mental health advocates.

 

Selected pages

Contents

HERE I SIT
1
PSYCHOTIC EPISODE
2
MADNESS CREEPS IN
3
FRAGMENT
4
FEAR
5
GLASSHOUSE
6
VOICES IN THE DARK
7
THE UNINVITED STRANGER
8
THE WANDERER
41
SITTING ON THE BALCONY OF BWARD
42
HEATHER
44
CASSANDRA
45
JULIAN
47
HELENA AND FRED
48
DIANNE
49
DEREK
50

WHISPER MY FRIEND
9
PARADOX OF THE WHISPER
10
THE THUNDERING VOICES
11
BRUTAL MADNESS
12
THE CONFESSION
13
THE REVOLVING DOOR
15
AS SHE GENTLY BRUSHED MY LONG HAIR
17
ON BEING CERTIFIED INSANE
18
THE VISITATION
19
THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN
20
THERE IS A SADNESS IN ME
21
POSSESSION
22
OVER EXPOSED
23
RAMBLINGS OF A PSYCHE IN DESPAIR
24
WHATEVER GETS YOU THROUGH THE NIGHT
31
THE MADWOMAN IN THE ATTIC
32
ON LOOKING AT MILLAIS OPHELIA
34
ON LOOKING ATIOMILLAIS OPFELIA
35
DAMNED AS WE ALL ARE
36
VOICES IN THE DARK II
37
ASYLUM
38
THE POSSESSED
40
WE
52
MADNESS
54
SANITY
55
DEATH WISH
56
LIFE WISH
57
DESPAIR
58
THE RAZORS EDGE
59
I HAVE SEEN
60
WHO WANTS TO KNOW
61
THE DARK DOOR
62
SPIRITUS INSANIAE
64
A WARD 1991
66
AND NOISE DROWNS THE BREATH OF THE NIGHT GOING BY
67
RESTLESSNESS
69
DEATH RISING
70
WHITE LIGHTWHITE MADNESS
73
HELLO? IS ANYONE OUT THERE?
74
A THESAURUS OF MADNESS
77
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
79
OTHER POETRY TITLES FROM SPINIFEX PRESS
81
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Poems From the Madhouse
Sandy Jeffs
Limited preview - 2003
Poems from the Madhouse
Sandy Jeffs
No preview available - 2000
Poems from the Madhouse
Sandy Jeffs
No preview available - 2002

Common terms and phrases

afraid anguish asylum attic babbling idiot balcony beautiful bewilderment black hole Blood Relations Brutal Madness computer cannot confirm confirm your call confusion Cornflowers cosmic game crawling crazy creep crushed Dark Door dead death DEATH WISH desperate imagination diagnosis Dido Doctor drowns the breath evil eyes fear feel feminist Fools fragile friends gaze ghosts glasshouse heart Holocausts holy woman inmates insane ISBN journey Laertes life’s Lips Went Shopping live locked lonely look lost lunatic madhouse madwoman Medicare mental mind mind’s mystery never nice place night going noise drowns one’s Ophelia pain Palace pastiche poetry possessed psychosis Queen of Heaven quit reality roaming the wilderness Sandy Jeffs sanity schizophrenia seen SELF-PORTRAIT senses shadows shattered Ship of Fools sorrow soul spectres spinning world Spiritus Insaniae struggle Suniti Namjoshi thoughts thundering uninvited stranger Visionary visions voices wanderer want to know waste land pursued weep whirlwind Whisper wish

About the author (2003)

Sandy Jeffs is an author born in Ballarat and has a BA from La Trobe University. She has lived with schizophrenia and all its moods for over thirty years. She is a community educator who speaks to schools, universities and community groups about what it¿s like to live with a mental illness. She is the author of the bestselling Poems from the Madhouse (1993; reprinted 2000, 2001), Loose Kangaroos (co-author, 1998), Blood Relations (2000), Confessions of a Midweek Lady: Tall Tennis Tales (2001), and The Wings of Angels: A memoir of madness (2004), and her autobiography, Flying with Paper Wings: Reflections on Living With Madness (2009).

Bibliographic information

TitlePoems from the Madhouse
AuthorSandy Jeffs
Edition2
PublisherSpinifex Press, 2003
ISBN1742191487, 9781742191485
Length88 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Poetry / Australian & Oceanian
Poetry / Subjects & Themes / Disability
  
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