Surviving Schizophrenia and Poetry

Chipmunka presents two of Bob Crew's extraordinary books in a single paperback...

'Surviving Schizophrenia'
The eighteen poems in this collection are written in remembrance of the late Roy Crew, who suffered from schizophrenia in Britain from the 1940s until the 1960s. They are written by his brother, Bob Crew, who is a published poet who visited Roy regularly and observed him carefully throughout his long illness. They tell the story of Roy's illness and ultimate survival and they are the kind of poems that Roy could not have written for himself because his condition was too severe and he had no apparent talent for poetry.

'Mind and Soul Poetry'
This book of poetry provides us with a wide-ranging picture of mental health in the UK and the contribution that poetry can make to a better understanding of our mental condition and the reasons for it.

About the Author

Bob Crew is a published author and poet whose others books - Sea Poems, Gurkhas at War and The Beheading & other True Stories - are currently in the bookstalls and on Amazon.

Book Extract

"Knitting Patterns

Unpicking knitting
in the woolly thinking
of the woven heart
with its crosswise
threads of emotion
spun like cotton
to make a complicated
work of intricate thought
that is patterned and poked
by needles from the planet
mind to clarify the pulsating
knowledge of this muscle
of all muscles, rhythmic
with circulating blood
with which to take
and to give heart,
expressing hidden meaning
through so much feeling
with stitches of plain
and also of purl poetry
dripping with lifeblood
and best known tothose
who knit and to others
who carefully un-knit.

The Key In The Lock

The locked mind
can only be unlocked
by a very special key
from the world of imagery
that needs no commentary
or explanation to set thoughts free.
The locked mind can only unwind
and become gradually unblocked
after the key that was thrown away
has been retrieved from yesterday
when imprisonment held sway.
The effortless insertion of the key
in the lock will set minds free
as it opens them up to poetry.
Don't throw the key away.