The Wings of Angels: A Memoir of Madness

By Sandy Jeffs

Plumbing the depths of human experience in her journey into madness, Sandy Jeffs shares her experience in this collection of poetry reminiscent of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. With stark dignity and intense fear, these poems cross into a realm where nightmares wrestle with dreams, death by devouring is a way station, and the underworld becomes a tourist destination. In the midst of this darkness, Jeffs's leavening sense of humor peoples her descent with the sirens of the supermarket, a high-tech, technicolor Armageddon, and a modern Cerberus with three heads: Ken, Barbie, and Ronald McDonald. Written with great insight into the experience of madness, this collection will intrigue all readers with an interest in the wayward workings of the mind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Spinifex Press
• Release date: May 1, 2005
• ISBN: 9781742194806

Book preview

Melbourne.

ALSO BY SANDY JEFFS

Poems from the Madhouse

Loose Kangaroos (co-author)

Blood Relations

Confessions of a Midweek Lady: Tall Tennis Tales

THE WINGS OF ANGELS

A MEMOIR OF MADNESS

Sandy Jeffs

Spinifex Press Pty Ltd

504 Queensberry Street

North Melbourne, Vic. 3051

Australia

[e-mail]

www.spinifexpress.com.au

First published 2004

Copyright © Sandy Jeffs, 2004

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealings for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, this book may not be reproduced in whole or in part by any process, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without prior written permission of the copyright owner and the above publisher of the book.

Copyright for educational purposes

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Edited by Judith Rodriguez

Cover design by Deb Snibson

Typeset by Claire Warren

Printed and bound by McPherson’s Printing Group

National Library of Australia

cataloguing-in-publication data

Jeffs, Sandy, 1953– .

The wings of angels : a memoir of madness.

ISBN 978-1-74219-227-7 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 978-1-74219-480-6 (ePub Format)

ISBN 1 876756 51 9.

1. Schizophrenia – Poetry. 2. Australian poetry – Women authors.

I. Title.

A821.3

This project has been assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

For Werner, Hardy and Elke

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My thanks go to Hardy Brosow and Werner Pelz for their critical reading of the manuscript. Thanks also to Anne Vines who gave her time to read and comment on the poems. Coral Hull gave valuable feedback for which I am grateful. Sarah Ferber and Leigh Dale were always very encouraging of the work and I thank them for their enthusiastic support. Judith Rodriguez was a wonderful editor, challenging me all the way and pointing out the finer points of the craft of poetry. To all the wonderful women at Spinifex Press, who have supported me over the years, thankyou. I never thought this work would see the light of day, but Susan Hawthorne and Renate Klein have given it a chance to reach out, for which I am ever grateful. As always, thankyou to Lynne and Felicity, and Robbie and Dido for just being there.

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