#hereticsloversmadmen – Heretics, Lovers, and Madmen

With Clenched Fists, I Rage – A Collaborative Poem

I chew on my rage breaking teeth on its rock candy hard edges I resist base reflex to swallow these jagged shards whole instead spitting blood and shrapnel hard into the unrelenting soil of injustice Christine E. Ray My fist clenches unconsciously, Noticing only when my knuckles pop. They say peace and love Will win…

Lady Justice – A Collaborative Poem

we keep justice sealed under bell-shaped glass and morality locked in amber on our pristine mantelpieces we dust them off from time to time novelties to be displayed nonchalantly when discerning guests come to call Christine E. Ray rest we now on our laurels? weep, ye lady liberty /blind/ yet she sees scales unbalanced /hang/…

Sharing Our Truths: The Mask – L. Stevens

Call me what you will Never forget you made me to protect you from what kills Call me what you will a shield, a shroud, still no guarantee Call me what you will Never forget. You made me L. Stevens is an intj who loves learning about everything and filing it away for later. She…

Sharing Our Truths: Self-Isolation – Jaya Avendel

I am hot and angry Lost somewhere between crying and screaming. I seek something to break To fling a jar hard and Watch its crystalline shine shatter With this exile as I Slowly dissolve into a pile of bones Cracked without hope. I thought myself strong and so I am as my will keeps me…

Sharing Our Truths: The truth – a.d.matthias

The truth is… Very little has changed day to day; they are still empty, the rooms are still empty, the soul is still empty; alone in a home, no bother for even light, save what pierces the tightly shuttered blinds, preoccupied in the darkness by a broken record, and the aged dust that collects on…

I Am More Than Breath and Bone: a.d.matthias

I am more than breath and bone… I am invisible, the interstitial; in the onslaught of existence, I am the space that bears dismissal; I am the ink in the blink, the prose never read, the praise never given, and the truth never bled I am muted, the bitten tongue, the trapped gasp of life…

It’s the End of the World As We Know It Challenge: I want to fly – Charu Sharma

We break against the dirt of the ground with the loudest thud, it’s there for everyone to hear it’s there for everyone to see. A glass pane put back together from its broken shards isn’t as transparent; you can trace the deep grayish sadness running along the long lines of its cracks, just on the…

Soul Defect – Jamie Lynn Martin

I’ve often pictured myself as the girl born to hide in the shadows, overcast by all the stories marked with love. You see those are the ones who get to feel the light, their shine is pure, untainted. You see I’m broken, defected the moment my soul hit land. I’m meant for different things, my…

All the Bright Places – Candice Louisa Daquin

All the places I have been and sat, and wept, and dried my tears moving on to another destination leaving you there in shards, in bottle tops, in crumpled napkins and cigarette box leaving you there in unmade sheets, flung wide windows, ageless sea gracing our loss with her eternity. I have run from you,…

Announcing November’s An Unquiet Mind Prompt Challenge

For November, Heretics, Lovers, and Madmen will be teaming up with Brave and Reckless and others for a writing prompt challenge. We will be using the titles of memoirs and novels that explore life with mental illness as daily writing prompts. To honor our own mental health and self-care needs, we will be posting the…