Date: 1965
"The ripe brain rotting like a yellow nut / Hatching / Its babel of sea-lice, sandfly, and maggot."
preview | full record— Walcott, Derek (b. 1930)
Date: 1978, 1979
"The mind is like the untrained elephant. When it is bound with the cord of mindfulness to the firm post of the previously discussed meditative object, [even] if it is unwilling to remain there, it is gradually brought under control, goaded by the hook of awareness."
preview | full record— Wayman, Alex
Date: 1981
"What's my head but a rat's nest / of dubious texts?"
preview | full record— Harwood, Gwen (1920-1995)
Date: 1992
"Only behind a waterfall of brutal and pleasurable sensations, thought Patrick, accepting the leather-clad menu without bothering to glance up, could he hide from the bloodhounds of his conscience. . There, in the cool recess of the rock, behind that heavy white veil, he would hear them yelping a...
preview | full record— Edward St. Aubyn (b. 1960)
Date: 1992
"It was hard enough to rescue himself from the avalanche of his own feelings, without allowing the gloomy St Bernard of his attention to wander into other fields."
preview | full record— Edward St. Aubyn (b. 1960)
Date: 1992
"Heroin landed purring at the base of his skull, and wrapped itself darkly around his nervous system, like a black cat curling up on its favourite cushion."
preview | full record— Edward St. Aubyn (b. 1960)
Date: 1999
"A soul was like a worm in an apple, my mother told me."
preview | full record— Offill, Jenny (b. 1968)
Date: 2007
"When panic grips your body and your heart is a hummingbird, / Raven thoughts blacken your mind until you're breathing in reverse, / All your friends and sedatives mean well, but make it worse, / Every reassurance just magnifies the doubt, / Better find yourself a place to level out."
preview | full record— Oberst, Conor Mullen (b. 1980)
Date: 2009
"These are some of the things // you don't have to know because the melody / is like a small bird, maybe a yellow canary, / that wings its way into your mind / --no, into your heart-- / where there's a perch already // set up for it, a little trapeze / to swing back and forth on as it sings / and...
preview | full record— Raab, Lawrence (b. 1946)
Date: June 1, 2010
"Books live in the mind like honey inside a beehive.
preview | full record— McGrath, Campbell (b. 1962)