compositions

odd creatures

Us odd creatures must laugh at the things that hurt us

For we will never make it out alive if we don’t

 

We pass our days like worms 

Vulnerable to anyone who passes 

Slithering through the dirt always looking for our predators

 

Why was I born like this ?

When did I become this thing everyone is so afraid of ?

Why must we be punished for something we cannot control ?

 

Maybe what makes us different is what makes us powerful

My hallucinations predict the future, I am sure of it 

Everything i say is the truth 

You just don’t know it yet 

 

My powers is what makes me dangerous 

That is why I must take this character of deaf and dumb 

They don’t mind spilling their secrets to a crazy man like me

Life has taught me to live in silence

 

My curse started from the day i was born 

Pretending to be deaf and dumb is a mechanism for all the voidance ive endured 

Rejected by every single person in my life

Unworthy of attention 

 

The devil of this hell constantly hurts us 

Giving us only one option 

A self mechanism 

 

We all found our own unique way to cope 

I create fog as a safe place 

Harding believes to be sophisticated and Bibbit stutters 

 

His mother and the devil work together to strip Bibbit of his sanity

People just crave taking advantage of the weird creatures of society

 

Why must we create a fake place in a real world to feel safe?

When will our acting stop? 

Who will save us from so much torment?

The Monster Inside My Head 

Rationale

  The story I chose to read was One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest written by Ken Kessey. While reading the book I thought Bromden had a really sad story that sadly many kids can relate to today. Being ignored for being different is one of the hardest things to deal with especially when dealing with a mental disorder. However, what I wanted to focus on with my writing is getting inside a person with a mental illness. I wanted my writing to portray how people in society make it difficult to overcome one’s sickness. Poems are known to be used as a form of escape from whatever turmoil there is within a person, which is why I chose this genre. I choose to write the poem in Bromden’s perspective because he is a great example of how society can be cruel to someone like Bromden. Throughout the book we see how healthcare works treat patients, especially nurse Ratched. Which is why I refer to her as the predator in phrase 2 and the devil in phrase 7 and 9. The question i use in this poem is a way to show the audience what goes on in the head of someone dealing with such a severe illness. Brodmen also talks about being ignored by peers and nurses that it became easy to take part of this character. Bromden believes his strength is having hallucinations because he believes they are predicting the future, which is why I include this in my poem. In order to understand a patient they must see a glimpse of their thinking. I mention in the poem a few of the patients that he resides with. Each has their own way of coping with how society treats them. For example Bromden, “Nobody can help. And the more I think about how nothing can be helped, the faster the fog rolls in. And I’m glad when it gets thick enough, you’re lost in it and can let go and be safe again” (p. 110). I use Harding and Bibbit because they seem to be affected by the negative forces of society. The title of my poem is  Odd creatures and it’s because when you don’t resemble what society wants you to look or act like, you are the odd creature of society. The next genre I chose to do was a drawing. Throughout the decades we’ve seen artists like Vincent van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, and Edward Munch show their mental illnesses through their drawings. For people who cannot describe their feelings in words it may be easier to depict their emotions through a drawing. With my drawing I wanted to show what a patient in this hospital feels in general not just Bromden. I wanted my drawing to connect with the audience as well as with the book. My drawing shows one person, it could be female or male, with monsters coming out of her mind.With my drawing, I wanted to show how a patient in an Oregon psychiatric hospital feels. Having a mental illness means being constantly judged by people. In most cases, society has a big role in decreasing someone’s mental health. For patients in this mental hospital such as Bromden, Bibbit and Harding, people from their life have made them change in some sort of way. In other words, they feel controlled by the monsters in life that are constantly tormenting them in their mind. I believe that the general audience can also relate to this because someone with a mental illness is constantly thinking about what everyone else is thinking of them. Someone dealing with bullying or cyberbullying may depict their peers as monsters constantly hurting them physically and mentally.