Around the Bend

<p>In <em>Around the Bend</em> lies the brutality of mental illness. The solitude and heaviness of depression that cannot be willed away. And yet lists are made. And yet the author stayed and watched the gift of puddles being formed by a cool rain. There is honesty around how low things can get. There is the reality of days when rising and eating are as good as it gets for today. There is also longing for happy days of noisy active laughing children contrasted with a yearning for quiet - in the rooms within and without the poet's being. Themes of mental illness empty nesting and daily struggles weave together with a thread of hope.</p><p></p><p></p>