IRENE DRENNAN, a transplanted 1950s Greenwich Village artist/poet, moved to Washington state in 1969. Her writing has appeared in Duckabush Journal, Film Writers West, Gray Panthers, N.O.W., Raven Chronicles and other literary magazines. She read with the Seattle Five Plus One poetry workshop for eight years. The poems of this popular group were anthologized into a book by the same name -- The Seattle Five Plus One (Pig Iron Press, 1995). In the 1940s, when Irene finished high school, she could not decide if she should study psychology or art. She took a job as an attendant in a mental hospital. "I wanted to be sure I was taking the right path. Also, I read a very old book titled Lunatix. I was fascinated. I had to go see for myself. I tried, through writing, to understand what the patients were feeling. But after two years at Buffalo State Hospital, I chose art." read Irene's poems |
malpractice it is rumored Jesus walks the halls of a local asylum offering comfort to those who receive his bloody touch lunatics lean into his words hoping for a miracle some measure of peace agitation fills the air doctors tremble arm themselves with needle and pills stumble and shout "nail him with hypodermics paralyze him with psychotropics crucify him on iron cots" dear god heavenly father do not forgive them for they know exactly what they do. c2001 Irene Drennan |
IRENE DRENNAN, a transplanted 1950s Greenwich Village artist/poet, moved to Washington state in 1969. Her writing has appeared in Duckabush Journal, Film Writers West, Gray Panthers, N.O.W., Raven Chronicles and other literary magazines. She read with the Seattle Five Plus One poetry workshop for eight years. The poems of this popular group were anthologized into a book by the same name -- The Seattle Five Plus One (Pig Iron Press, 1995). In the 1940s, when Irene finished high school, she could not decide if she should study psychology or art. She took a job as an attendant in a mental hospital. "I wanted to be sure I was taking the right path. Also, I read a very old book titled Lunatix. I was fascinated. I had to go see for myself. I tried, through writing, to understand what the patients were feeling. But after two years at Buffalo State Hospital, I chose art." read Irene's poems |
Irene Drennan |
