Touched

In the title poem of this collection, the writer explores the 'dark night of the soul' experience of living with long-term and severe mental states - from both a personal and archetypal perspective. There is no safe haven of medical 'pathology' here, but an urgent and nightmare-ish right of passage for the damaged and conflicted psyche. A modern form of Purgatory, more earthy - escaping the grasping jaws of Inferno, and stumbling towards the rarefied climes of Paradiso.