Poetry as Pregnancy: When “The Shrink Rap ™ on Mental Illness” Gives Birth

For the past month, I’ve been on a poetry journey, as it were.  This voyage of verse began with my writing “The (Shrink) Rap ™ on Mental Illness” for a non-profit, Passion for Change.  PfC educates the media and advocates for a more informed and balanced public portrayal of mental illness.  Along the way, realizing the need for clearer explanation for the Rap’s importance, I recently added this stanza:

Same sex marriage, legal marijuana
Are we all going California?
There’s a case both pro and contra.  Still…
Go west young mind – time-honored mantra.
But one big issue lies undercover
A source of disgrace for nameless “others”
Yet sleepless nights for mothers and brothers…
Hard to wo/man-up in a shame-breeding culture
Must Mental Illness still be the “closeted vulture?”

Simultaneously, I was generating lines about how our multi-hyper, “all-consuming digitocracy” might compromise one’s mental health.  And the ideas and images, sounds and rhythms kept coming:

Still…there’s a “new normal” equality
Of this you must agree:
With “off the grid” anxiety
Patience is now a luxury
And OMG…Everyone is ADD!
So forget “To be or not to be?”
You’re likely viral if not a byte crazy!

This passage proved a conduit to a Brave New World “Trinity” – Time-Numbers andTechnology – along with a Stress Doc ™ neologism – “Social Mediacracy.”  And while trying to capture the different facets of “Getting or Going MA&DD,” the Shrink Rap kept expanding.

Finally, I saw the obvious:  the original Mental Illness Rap had to give birth to a separate poetic progeny.  Initially, seeing the obvious was not so easy; you get wedded to your “baby” until realizing this “brainchild” has grown and is now a potential “mother of invention” or, at least, of procreation.  Now I understood that less (placing limits, streamlining, and sharpening the focus and scope of the original Rap) can be more (producing a better defined and related yet stand-alone second generation Rap).  And isn’t that the essence of gestation and giving birth, no matter the creative arena?

So here is the spanking new rap, (with some of her mother’s genes), “Getting or Going MA&DD:  Media Addiction & Digital Distraction – Four Slices”; consider this the equivalent of baby pictures.  The Rap is followed by the proud smiling mother:  “The (Shrink) Rap ™ on Mental Illness.”  I can’t think of a more fitting and graceful way to celebrate this holiday season than bringing new life into the world.  Please feel free to provide me feedback and to share with others.  Peace and (en)joy!

Mark
-----------------------------------

Getting or Going MA&DD:  Media Addiction & Digital Distraction – Four Slices

Can We Survive Social Mediacracy?

Today’s new web of complexity
A Siren song to one’s sanity –
Our all-consuming digitocracy
A hyper Facebook Fraternity.
Whether vanity or virtuality
United in distractibility
From a junk food surfing mentality
To tracking texts like it’s the lottery.

The “Dynamic” Duo:  Today’s “Trinity” & Toxicity

Dreading “off the grid” anxiety
We make Google eyes endlessly
At the high and mighty “TNT”
Our Brave New World “Trinity” –
Time-Numbers andTechnology!
Has dopamine toxicity
Numbed you into captivity?

A Not So Brave New World?

In insta-mode most miss the irony:
We’ve become so sedentary
No time for nature, no space for serenity
Tied to a station indefinitely
Being interrupted constantly
Fueled by undercover anonymity
And can’t see your eyes lack of empathy
Triggers “hide & seek” hostility, i.e.
The “e” in e-mail means “escape”-ability
Also, “I seek revenge” animosity
With heat-seeking “e”-missile strategy
Of a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde identity:
A person of seeming civility
Morphs all too mysteriously…
And now stalking your community
A reach out and crush someone cyber-bully!

ROI:  Return on Investment or Ruining Our Intelligence

The new ROI reality:
24/7 availability
Plus cost-cutting “efficiencies”, e.g.
Distant learning laboratories
(Yielding mostly distant memories
And frequent trips to lavatories).
Oh yes, the phone-conference pep rally
A monopoly on monotony
That only boosts consistently
Emotional IQ vacuity
As we send f-2-f to purgatory
Muting real give and take sensibility:
Who needs human intimacy
When there’s interconnectivity.
“Are you kidding me!”…
This is the stuff of absurdity
If not for all the zombie social anomie.
The future question, in all sincerity:
What’s the breakthrough-breakdown boundary
Besides gaming for eternity?


© Mark Gorkin  2014
Shrink Rap ™ Productions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The (Shrink) Rap ™ on Mental Illness:  Preamble

Same sex marriage, legal marijuana
Are we all going California?
There’s a case both pro and contra.  Still…
Go west young mind – time-honored mantra.
But one big issue lies undercover
A source of disgrace for nameless “others”
Yet sleepless nights for mothers and brothers…
Hard to wo/man-up in a shame-breeding culture
Must Mental Illness still be the “closeted vulture?”

There is but one reason why
For this fiery hue and cry…
Mental Illness, my friend, this is no lie
Is American as apple pie!
-------------

The (Shrink) Rap ™ on Mental Illness

When it comes to knowing inner demons
Life’s seasons yield all too human reasons:
Childhood trauma, chronic OCD
Addiction, abuse, brain anomaly
SAD, bipolar, or PTSD…
Finally, rounding out our litany
Baring fall color intensity
And spice of soul variety
DSM disorders of personality.
Oh biochem-branch of our fallen family tree
Will you genome more labels or bloom creativity?

Passion, oh passion
Not just mindless action
Passion, my passion
Sowing seeds of compassion

Can mental illness be a deviancy?
When one out of two, says the CDC
One day’ll show symptoms, predictably.
Now think about that…it might be you or me!

With mental illness most play a blame game
“Get it together, stop being so lame.”
Or we shake our heads: “It’s such a shame”
Now you’re only a diagnostic name.

Passion, oh passion
"Touched with Fire" ** interaction
Passion, our passion
The blazing pain of compassion

MI – Myocardial Infarction
A disease worthy of all our attention.
But MI – the Mental Illness version
It’s only an “in your head” perversion.

With a heart attack, you don’t get no flack
We rally troops and fight the no good plaque.
With a mind setback; wrong side of the tracks.
For the mentally ill there is no slack!

Passion, oh passion
Drives human exploration
Passion, my passion
Moral compass of compassion

This mental health rap is not meant to scare
But we still need to play “Truth AND Dare”
Especially when a family affair
That touches all whether distant or near
And it touches all for whom we care.

Mental illness breeds when slighting human needs!
With meds and counseling we can stop the bleed
With jobs and housing – a chance to succeed.
To change heads and hearts takes both word and deed…
When one breaks out another soul is freed!

Passion, oh passion
Past time for indignation
On beyond compassion
It's time for a decision!

Passion, my passion
A mind’s sacred mission
Passion, our passion
Will YOU commit to action?
---------------

** Touched with Fire" – The title of Kay Redfield Jamison's book, Touched with Fire:  Manic Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament; Jamison, a psychologist at Johns Hopkins University Dept. of Psychiatry, also authored the best-selling autobiography, An Unquiet Mind.

© Mark Gorkin  2014
Shrink Rap ™ Productions


Mark Gorkin, MSW, LICSW, "The Stress Doc" ™, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, is a national keynote and webinar speaker and "Motivational Humorist & Team Communication Catalyst" known for his interactive, inspiring and FUN programs for both government agencies and major corporations.  The Doc is a training and Stress Resilience Consultant for The Hays Companies, an international corporate insurance and wellness brokerage.  He has also led “Resilience, Team Building and Humor” programs for various branches of the Armed Services.  Mark, a former Stress and Violence Prevention Consultant for the US Postal Service, is the author of Resiliency Rap, Practice Safe Stress, and of The Four Faces of Anger.  See his award-winning, USA Today Online "HotSite" – www.stressdoc.com – called a "workplace resource" by National Public Radio (NPR).  For more info on the Doc's "Practice Safe Stress" programs or to receive his free e-newsletter, email stressdoc@aol.com or call 301-875-2567.

Upgrading the (Shrink) Rap ™ on Mental Illness: The Challenge of Criticality…The Criticality of Being Challenged

Once again I’m reminded that when writing something "really good," it’s vital to get feedback from an objective-critical source.  And this time, I even managed to take full bore feedback from my toughest critic:  my 91 y.o. mother (who still manages to do the Sunday NY Times Magazine Crossword.  Living with my brother and his wife, I typically make a monthly family visit.)  I showed her my most recent rap:  A “Passion for Change”:  The (Shrink) Rap ™ on Mental Illness.  This Resiliency Rap ™ was written for “Passion for Change.”  PfC is a non-profit, 501c organization that educates and encourages the media to provide a more balanced/objective depiction of mental health and mental illness.

During the feedback session, perhaps the clearest sign of “comfortable in my own skin” evolution was being able to consider her heated protest (she was “getting sick” of all the “Passion, oh Passion” choruses) without losing my cool.  In the past, I would likely have channeled my anger and defensiveness by affirming within myself, or attempting to “show her,” the value of my position.  Hey, she could be a daunting adversary.  As a procrastinating teen and young adult, she would pointedly pull from her brainy quiver words of the ancient Roman poet Horace:  To begin is to be half done; dare to know…start!  (And you wonder why I’m such an expert on stress, guilt, and neurosis.)

Today, I could accept her being “convinced” of her rightness without losing my own conviction, trusting my gut as to what “felt right” without the need for justifying, defending, and winning (or winning her over).

She did like most of the creative wordplay sandwiched in between the choruses.  I reduced the number of “Passion” refrains; however I consolidated but did not eliminate them, keeping the best and tossing the rest.  (Actually, I did have to “let go” of a pearl:  The passion in compassion.)

In addition, she enjoyed hearing a tangential musing often shared with speaking audiences, my uncommon take on the “s”-word for “passion."  (It’s neither “sex,” nor “soap opera,” nor the Washington DC-related favorite…”Senator.”  Alas the latter is a bit passé after Mr. Clinton’s memorable performance.  Actually, with a good dictionary, the “s”-word for “passion” is “suffering,” as in “The Passion Play”:  specifically, the sufferings of Jesus or, more generically, the sufferings of a martyr.  Mom even laughed when I couldn’t resist my punchline:  “Imagine all this time I never knew my Jewish mother was such a passionate woman!”  Definitely a groundbreaking and loving, trust-building moment for the two of us.

Letting Go and Designing Flow (with the help of family and friends)

Let’s get back to the theme of the essay.  Mom’s challenging feedback not only shook up the puzzle, it made me mentally restless.  This “constructive discontent” freed a basic recognition:  I had not sufficiently set the stage for the purpose of the poem within the Shrink Rap itself.  (And, yes, I had given more presence to the “passion” choruses than was warranted.)  Suddenly, there was a window for adding more subject matter content, now in machine-gun rhythmic, Tom Lehrer-like fashion.  (Here’s a gift:  google a video clip of this ‘60s Harvard mathematician and satirical-political writer-piano player-singer extraordinaire.)  The second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth stanzas make a case for why we all should be more knowledgeable and passionate about the subject.

Also, noteworthy, I’m definitely dancing on the creative edge in these stanzas: inventing new terms, slipping in a mythical-biblical reference, using genome as a verb and byte for bit.  The rap is substantively, not cosmetically, enriched; no trivial feat these upgrading at the push of a button daze!

I also received on point feedback from CJ, a friend and creative colleague (a talented visual artist).  Her critique motivated a search and design mode for several more descriptive or evocative terms and phrases.  For me, the challenge of creative writing, especially poetry, is weaving meaningful conceptual content into thought-provokingly memorable and, when possible, en-light-ening images, sounds, and rhythms.  The realm of Shrink Rap allows me to truly sew and spread “word artist” wings.  Hope you too will take flight.  Naturally, would love any and all feedback.  Enjoy!

Mark
stressdoc@aol.com 

---------------------
 

A “Passion for Change”:  The (Shrink) Rap ™ on Mental Illness

 

You say you're ready to "change for passion."

Sure, you’re hip to the latest fashion.
But will you really rearrange your brain...
Ready to work with a "Passion for Change"?

There is but one reason why
For all this “Passion” hue and cry
Mental Illness, my friend, this is no lie
Is American as apple pie!
-------------

The (Shrink) Rap ™ on Mental Illness

When it comes to knowing inner demons
Life’s seasons yield all too human reasons:
Childhood trauma, chronic OCD
Addiction, abuse, brain anomaly
SAD, bipolar, or PTSD...
Finally, rounding out our litany
With fall color intensity
And spice of life variety
DSM disorders of personality.
Oh biochem-branch of our fallen family tree
Will you genome more labels or bloom creativity?

And now a new web of complexity
A Siren song to one’s sanity
Our all-consuming digitocracy
A multi-hyper Facebook Fraternity.
Whether vanity or solidarity
United in distractibility
Making Google eyes at the “TNT Trinity”
As we deify Time-Numbers-Technology!

Passion, oh passion
A cyber celebration
Passion, our passion
What’s real, what’s illusion?

In insta-mode most miss the irony:
We’ve become so sedentary
No time for nature, no space for serenity
Bowing to 24/7 availability
Sacrificing work-life integrity
Tracking texts as one-armed banditry
Saving face as a cyberbully
Gaming for eternity.
The question for the future…
What’s the breakthrough-breakdown boundary?

Still…there’s a “new normal” equality
Of this you must agree:
Patience is now a luxury
And OMG…Everyone is ADD!
So forget “To be or not to be?”
You’re likely viral if not a byte crazy!

Passion, oh passion
Not just mindless action
Passion, our passion
Sowing seeds of compassion

Can mental illness be a deviancy?

When one out of two, says the CDC
One day’ll show symptoms, predictably.
Now think about that…it might be you or me!

With mental illness most play a blame game

“Get it together, stop being so lame.”
Or we shake our heads: “It’s such a shame”
Now you’re only a diagnostic name.

Passion, oh passion

"Touched with Fire" ** interaction
Passion, my passion
The blazing pain of compassion

MI – Myocardial Infarction

A disease worthy of all our attention.
But MI – the Mental Illness version
It’s only an “in your head” perversion.

 

With a heart attack, you don’t get no flack

We rally troops and fight the no good plaque.

With a mind setback; wrong side of the tracks.

For the mentally ill there is no slack!

 

Passion, oh passion

Drives human exploration

Passion, our passion
Moral compass of compassion

 

This mental health rap is not meant to scare

But we still need to play “Truth AND Dare”

Especially when a family affair

That touches all whether distant or near

And it touches all for whom we care.

 

Mental illness breeds when slighting human needs!

With meds and counseling we can stop the bleed
With jobs and housing – a mind-body is freed.
To change heads and hearts takes both word and deed…
Join Passion for Change; now help take the lead!

 

Passion, oh passion

Past time for indignation
On beyond compassion
It's time for a decision!

 

Passion, my passion

A mind’s sacred mission
Passion, our passion
Will YOU commit to action?

---------------

 

** Touched with Fire" – The title of Kay Redfield Jamison's book, Touched with Fire:  Manic Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament; Jamison, a psychologist at Johns Hopkins University Dept. of Psychiatry, also authored the best-selling autobiography, An Unquiet Mind.

 

© Mark Gorkin  2014

Shrink Rap ™ Productions

 

 

Mark Gorkin, the Stress Doc ™, www.stressdoc.com, acclaimed Keynote and Kickoff Speaker, Webinar Presenter, Retreat Leader and Motivational Humorist, is the author of Practice Safe Stress and The Four Faces of Anger. A former Stress & Violence Prevention consultant for the US Postal Service, the Stress Doc leads one-day "Stress Resiliency" workshops for "METRO" Managers and Supervisors of the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA).  "The Doc" is also a Team Building and Organizational Development Consultant as well as a Stress Resilience/Wellness Consultant for international consulting firm The Hays Companies.  Mark leads highly interactive, innovative, and inspiring programs for corporations and government agencies, including the US Military, on stress and brain resiliency/burnout prevention through humor, change and conflict management, generational communication, and 3 "R" -- Responsible, Resilient & Risk-Taking -- leadership-partnership team building.

Email stressdoc@aol.com for his popular free newsletter; info on speaking programs and phone coaching sessions.  And click https://vimeo.com/69053828 for the Stress Doc's wildly pioneering "Shrink Rap" video.

Stress Doc Mantra: "Think out of the box, perform outside the curve (the Bell Curve) and be out-rage-ous!"

A “Passion for Change”: The (Shrink) Rap ™ on Mental Illness.

Over the last few months I’ve had the pleasure to get to know a woman very passionate about the field of mental illness.  Marilyn Mongeon Quill, M.S., APR, President & CEO of “Passion for Change” (PfC).  Passion for Change is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3), which serves as a catalyst in breaking the stigma of mental illness by shedding light, challenging misperception and driving change through research, advocacy and education.  PfC is also a “proud member of the Mental Health & Addiction Advocacy Coalition.”  The organization is especially interested in enlightening the media about the realities of mental illness.  PfC desires to expose mass and social media misrepresentations that foster stereotypical views and assumptions about mental illness in the general populace.  Marilyn and I are discussing ways Passion for Change and the Stress Doc ™ might partner on an educational program for both professionals and the community-at-large.

During one of our recent get the word out brainstorms, I suddenly blurted out, “Hey I might be able to write a “Shrink Rap” ™ anthem for Passion for Change.  Of course, the last time I wrote a song for a group resulted in “The Electrifying Lady,” a hot bluesy ballad for a Black Beauty contest.  (Don’t ask…but if interested in the lyrics, email stressdoc@aol.com.)  With the aid of some bullet points from Marilyn, I went to work.  This is the kind of puzzle-challenge that sets my slightly manic mind on fire.  Actually, with so many psychiatric diagnostic labels on my family tree, I was calling up a path vividly articulated by the 20^th century, acclaimed English author, John Fowles.  Fowles believed emotional memories were his electric current.  He needed to be plugged into this power source to maximize his creative output.

So just below is the result of my electric currency, A “Passion for Change”:  The (Shrink) Rap ™ on Mental Illness.

BTW, if you’d like more information on Passion for Change, 28263 Center Ridge Road, Suite E-12, Westlake, OH  44145-3846, email Marilyn at mquill@passionforchange.org or call 216.496.3295.

Visit us on the web at: http://www.passionforchange.org

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/marilynmongeonquill

 

Hopefully, this will touch some heads and hearts!  Peace, Mark

----------------------------------

 

A “Passion for Change”:  The (Shrink) Rap ™ on Mental Illness

 

You say you're ready to "change for passion."

Sure, you’re hip to the latest fashion.

But will you really rearrange your brain...
Ready to work with a "Passion for Change"?

Passion, oh passion
Not just mindless action
Passion, our passion
Higher purpose compassion

Can mental illness be a deviancy?
When one out of two, says the CDC
One day’ll show symptoms, predictably.
Now think about that…it might be you or me!

Passion, oh passion
From angst or depression
Passion, my passion
Sowing seeds of compassion

With mental illness most play a blame game
“Get it together, stop being so lame.”
Or we shake our heads: “It’s such a shame”
Now you’re only a diagnostic name.

Passion, oh passion
"Touched with Fire" ** interaction
Passion, our passion
The blazing pain of compassion

MI – Myocardial Infarction
A disease worthy of all our attention.
But MI – the Mental Illness version
It’s only an “in your head” perversion.

With a heart attack, you don’t get no flack
We rally troops and fight the no good plaque.
With a mind setback; wrong side of the tracks.
For the mentally ill there is no slack!

Passion, oh passion
Drives human evolution
Passion, my passion
Moral compass of compassion

This mental health rap is not meant to scare
But we still need to play “Truth and Dare”
Especially when a family affair
That touches all whether distant or near
And it touches all for whom we care.

Passion, oh passion
Past time for indignation
On beyond compassion
It's time for a decision!

Mental illness breeds when slighting human needs!
With meds and counseling we can stop the bleed
With jobs and housing – a mind-body is freed.
To change heads and hearts takes both word and deed…
Join Passion for Change; now help take the lead!

Passion, oh passion
A mind’s sacred mission
Passion, my passion
Finding passion in compassion

Passion, my passion
A mind’s determination
Passion, our passion
Will YOU commit to action?
---------------

** Touched with Fire" – The title of Kay Redfield Jamison's book, Touched with Fire:  Manic Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament; Jamison, a psychologist at Johns Hopkins University Dept. of Psychiatry, also authored the best-selling autobiography, An Unquiet Mind.


© Mark Gorkin  2014
Shrink Rap ™ Productions


Mark Gorkin, the Stress Doc ™, www.stressdoc.com, acclaimed Keynote and Kickoff Speaker, Webinar Presenter, Retreat Leader and Motivational Humorist, is the author of Practice Safe Stress and The Four Faces of Anger. A former Stress & Violence Prevention consultant for the US Postal Service, the Stress Doc leads one-day "Stress Resiliency" workshops for "METRO" Managers and Supervisors of the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA).  "The Doc" is also a Team Building and Organizational Development Consultant as well as a Critical Incident/Grief Intervention Expert for Business Health Services, a National Wellness/EAP/OD Company.  Mark leads highly interactive, innovative, and inspiring programs for corporations and government agencies, including the US Military, on stress and brain resiliency/burnout prevention through humor, change and conflict management, generational communication, and 3 "R" -- Responsible, Resilient & Risk-Taking -- leadership-partnership team building.

Email stressdoc@aol.com for his popular free newsletter & info on speaking programs and phone coaching sessions.  And click https://vimeo.com/69053828 for the Stress Doc's wildly pioneering "Shrink Rap" video.

Stress Doc Mantra: "Think out of the box, perform outside the curve (the Bell Curve) and be out-rage-ous!"