Description

By Tom Clement

ISBN: 978-1-84991-674-5
Published: 2012
Pages: 98
Key Themes: mental health, psychosis, poetry, lyrics

Description

The first part of the book, Apology’s Hypocrisy:

These lyrics show a side of me that’s different to the lyrics that are in my biography and lets you know some of the feelings I had while writing my biography ‘What Will Other People Think’ that I didn’t want to include in the book. My biography needed to end on the right note and these lyrics didn’t fit.

You don’t need to read my biography ‘What Will Other People Think?‘ to follow this, but you might gain a better understanding of where these lyrics are coming from. My biography is titled and is also available at
www.chipmunkapublishing.co.uk

The lyric ‘An Apology’ was written when I was feeling quite angry about my time in the psychiatric ward and how those of us in the system are looked down on. It’s partly my biography lyric and partly a campaign song.

The second part of the book:

A lyrical year, shares the first poems and lyrics I ever wrote. All of which were written during my ‘psychosis’ and time in hospital. Fears,visons, deep emotions, innocence and maturity are woven into each lyric that was written.

About the Author

Born in the 1980’s, at 16 tom was sectioned under the mental health act after developing an organic psychosis which worsened after a severe family tragedy.

Tom suffered the psychosis for 3 years before finding a way to get some control of his life. His journey to recovery has been long and hard, but during recovery from his last relapse tom has found importance in having a voice, and has been an active member of his counties NHS mental health trust, speaking up for service users, and shared his experience in mental health training seminars.

Book Extract

. . . . . . . Locked up under section 2, it go’s on your record
I wasn’t a criminal but still I was scorned
I was kept on the ward
Couldn’t close any doors
As if I didn’t already feel insecure
Followed through the hall
They noted every mouthful
Couldn’t work out if the nurses wanted to help
Or just wanted to be cruel

Well, this is me
This is me, this is me, this is me
And if you want an apology you can stuff it. . . .. . .