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A Mental Patients' Union

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A Mental Patients' Union

Two poems by Paige Murphy and a moment with Unica Zurn

Apr 5, 2022
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A Mental Patients' Union

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Paige Murphy offers us two of their poems with an explainer, which we normally don’t publish, but this one is charming and about a trout, so we’ll make an exception.

“The title for the first poem refers to the image that is sort of the founding symbol of the (psychiatric survivor's movement) in the UK, a fish trapped on a hook. inspired by psychoanalyst Karl Menninger's analogy:

‘When a trout rising to a fly gets hooked on a line and finds himself unable to swim about freely, he begins a fight which results in struggles and splashes and sometimes escapes. Often, of course, the situation is too tough for him. In the same way, the human being struggles with his environment and with the hooks that catch him.’

The image was included on a manifesto published in the 1970s proposing a mental patients’ union. The other poem is inspired in small part by Unica Zurn (emo vibes here).”

If you you like what follows, you can get more of Paige and other poets at their Power and Pleasure in Poetry event at the ICA on April 13th, as part of the Decriminalised Futures exhibition, or read them in Salvage. RA.

Untitled Unica Zurn drawing, 1961.
fish on a hook

sticky detoxified organs
crystalline pink sugar fluff
legal insanity
cocoa butter 
for posterity
handle-less door
for long life
no knickers
lamb heart
positive mental attitude
small steps to
clonzepam
jelly custard
complete loss
integral to structure
operation condor
it’s not as if
there were never
conspiracies
of unliveability
300 cameras
a day
as if they don’t 
broad daylight 
murder
with legal consensus
like
names dates
badge number
drinking
poison
infected 
air
proves it
like
the perversion 
of love 
reason 
kindness
british values
priorities 
dropped
picked up
confused
born in the lost & found
stories 
earlier heard
body touched
squirmed
the words for it
don’t stand up
in court
your dreams
may not be submitted
as evidence
consciousness graphs
only madness
made
sharpened
with
violent
vacant 
intent
theres words
words
words for it
for some creatures
still exist
fangs 
in language
demutilated
animated
hole
the verbs 
equal
blunt
wield 
wield them 
at the head
that’s where you kill
Unica Bound by Hans Bellmer, 1958.
seedbloodsilk

I squat
over the mirror
to stare into my cunt
at the sickness of my labour 
extended into my kidneys 
and the despair
perfumes droplets
I spill my drink
on purpose
so I’m not tempted
to smash the glass
no
I didn't finish Vol. 1 either
it’s getting
so cold
I think I’ll have another 

- Paige Murphy

Further reading: Gary Indiana on Unica Zurn for Art in America.

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