John Garfield attended medical school at the University of California, San Francisco. His residency was at Harvard's Massachusetts Mental Health Center. He is currently professor of psychiatry and associate chair for Development and Psychotherapy Curriculum at the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. He has written a book, Unbearable Affect: A Guide to the Psychotherapy of Psychosis (John Wiley and Sons, 1995), as well as papers on self psychology and the psychotherapy of psychosis.
Garfield's poem is thoroughly appealing. Whether its beauty is in the contrast produced by anchoring solid stanzas within stormier verses, which produces a profound, quiet sense of containment, or something captured within the language itself is hard to say. Most likely, it is both. But the feeling of being allowed to participate in the rhythm of a good analysis, in which constancy is slowly taken in, is part of the deep appeal. This poem feels like an invitation to wholeness.
Immersion
Emergencia. Din. Dreams of danger.The Cacophony of Everyday LifeLove feared lost must be HiddenIn the blinding violence of desperate effortsScattered shards, are they seeds? of insecurityFind a place on the Surface—a location.The constant repetition of your presenceGoes unnoticedThe quiet hum of your workaday wayGoes unnoticedI am too frightened by the possibilityOf poisoned chocolate almondsAnd when the seasons changeAnd when the rain comesA natural gravity allows the seedsThe shards to sink downThe sounds of sirens eventually surrenderTo the ticks and clicks of a 45 minute clockThe constant repetition of your presenceGoes unnoticedThe quiet hum of your workaday wayGoes unnoticedI am less frightened by the possibilityOf poisoned chocolate almonds.
Taking Hold
From crown to root, the distance of my universeIn your universe is measured not in inches or timeBut by the qualities of the armatureThere is no swinging pendulum hereThe corners of my mouth have taste and distasteBut they do not define meThe constant repetition of your presenceGoes unnoticedThe quiet hum of your workaday wayGoes unnoticedAs roots take hold, from surface to depthI find that I can breathe hereExpanding my reach I do not like what I touchI am ugly I am defective I am not pretty enoughHow the hell did I get from here to there?I cannot see underground or is it that I prefer to remainBlind and angry, angry and blindAnd very very afraidThe constant repetition of your presenceGoes unnoticedThe quiet hum of your workaday way
Waking Up
As I shift the keys of my uncertainty do IDrive a new car, sing many new songs, open lost memories?I am awash in the movement of my emotions.I start to feel myself being felt and reach beyond the surfaceFrightened by the renewed threat of blinding violence andSo many ugly things and most of all the pain of Hidden loveThe constant repetition of your presenceIs noticedThe quiet hum of your workaday wayIs noticedStaying with me as I'm finding my wayStaying with me, staying out of my wayThrough starts and stops and so much unfinished businessSo many disappointments and painful silent rejectionsI had paid so much attention to everything about meAnd so little attention to meFrom crown to root/root to crown, it runs more freely nowLess fear, more possibilities, can I continue this on my own?The constant repetition of your presenceWill soon be gone
Sheri Butler Hunt, M.D., is a candidate at the Seattle Psychoanalytic Society and Institute in the adult training program and a graduate analyst in the child division. A published poet and member of TAP's editorial board, she welcomes reader's comments and suggestions at .
Correction: Nathan Simon's poem, which appeared in the last edition of TAP, was entitled “Two Almost Haiku.”