“Well I woke up this morning and I had myself a beer.”
Roadhouse Blues (1970) Jim Morrison Lyrics The Doors Composition
Many years ago, I was asking a patient about his morning
routine and he replied with the Roadhouse Blues lyric and started laughing. At
the time he was taking medications that I prescribed but also seeing a
naturopath who was giving him a complex solution of minerals that was supposed
to treat his mental illness. His family was more concerned about him than he
was concerned about himself. Severe
mental illness leaves a person focused on irrelevant pieces of information out
in the environment for amusement/entertainment/meaning while ignoring the
basics – like self-care and not standing out too far in public. Clinicians refer to some of that as inappropriate
social behavior, but it is a complex multi-layered problem. The same
process can result in a great deal of difficulty staying focused on the
necessary day-to-day routine. In that mix, there are boundary problems that can
contaminate the most altruistic impulses and affect personal safety. Phil Taggart does a great job of painting
that picture in his book of poetry Rick Sings.
In a brief introduction we meet his brother
Rick. Rick has a severe mental illness
that clearly affects his ability to function. I am writing that after reading
the entire book and all the poetic descriptions. We find out that Rick has a
lot of problems in living, managing his self-care and medications. There are times when he is not eating well, where
he is in an agitated state, where his hygiene is affected, and where he puts
his housing security at risk by taking in women who have lost housing or were
the victims of violence. His brother is a force to help keep him on track and
check in with him. Those encounters are
the basis for this book.
The first images we get are family chaos – the product of
mental illness, alcoholism, aggression and violence, and the death of a young
sibling. Rick’s modern-day world is tied
in with that early history. Here are two stanzas from the poem Morning
Coffee
The rest of this poem has stark images of people who come into your life and leave with you liking or not linking them or yourself along the way. At some point it is hard to know if the memory is that sad or current sadness clouds the memory.
I recently read an essay on how art can be rhetorical in the
persuasive sense. This poetry consists of observations and emotions that the
imagery elicits. There is no hint of bias – only the empathy elicited by images
and situations. I had not thought of
this before but Taggart’s poetry is the perfect medium to communicate the major
problems facing people with severe mental illnesses and anyone trying to help
them. You can’t help being pulled in when he advises his brother to stay away
from the police for his own protection or when he has to let a security guard
know that “he’s with me” to avoid awkward social situations.
There is a stream of consciousness flow to the poetry with
associations across the lifetimes of Taggart and his brother. I liked this
feature because it is the way a lot of people (including myself) think. Focus
on the present and in some downtime – think about an event that happened in
1975. When your brother is in the picture – think about common events. Several
of those themes run through this book of poetry and it is masterfully
done. No associated explanations – just
a description of an event with a universal emotion.
I liked this book of poetry.
In keeping with my book reviews, I like the idea of conditional
recommendations. In this case – liking poetry will help. It will even be better if poetry stimulates
your mental imagery and emotions. I call the writing style of this poetry free
verse like E.E. Cummings. The phrases
are also arranged differently on the page to emphasize different thoughts and
actions. If you like that style, you
will like this book even more. Beyond liking poetry, this book will potentially
help you understand the problem of severe mental illness and its effects on
people and their families. Even though there are efforts out there to decrease
stigma and attributing stigma to a lack of understanding of the problem –
stigma has always been a problematic concept for me. If more people experienced
what Phil Taggart puts into his poems there would be a greater understanding. He is a strong voice in this area. Read this book if you are interested in a deeper understanding the problem.
George Dawson, MD, DFAPA
Reference:
Phil Taggart. Rick
Sings. Santa Barbara, California. Brandenberg
Press 2014: 67pp. https://philtaggartpoet.com/
