Bittersweet Journeys

By Luisa Castagnaro

Bittersweet Journeys is a poetic anthology of my heart-felt experiences ranging in time from adolescence to the present. An experiment in "painting with words," it was written for the sheer delight of unfettered expression. My best poem, "The Sound of Madness," written in a state of despair induced by persistent and disturbing voicehearing, won second prize in a national poetry competition in 2010.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9781479779567

Luisa Castagnaro

Because of my father's career, I started kindergarten in New York without speaking a word of English, which I later learned in school while speaking Italian at home. I majored in English at NYU, graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. Three years later I completed a Master's in ESL and taught at a City University college. My path has been arduous, however, due to a nervous breakdown as a college freshman, followed by eight relapses in 29 years. My healing was miraculously initiated in 1986 under the auspices of a guru, when my conventional materialistic view of the universe was transformed into a perception of material reality as a manifestation of the divine Spirit. My healing was also facilitated by quitting a ten-year smoking habit overnight, learning yogic philosophy, meditation, and becoming a vegetarian. "Self-described as a 'voice-hearer' and a 'psychiatric survivor,' poet Luisa Castagnaro takes inspiration from her most moving experiences, thus conveying a rich palette of states of soul. Ms. C astagnaro's influence by the anti-psychiatry movement and various spiritual traditions contributes to her appreciation of the sundry dimensions of life, ranging from the mundane to the metaphysical." --GerardV.Sunnen, M.D. Author, "A Primer of Clinical Hypnosis." Board Certifi ed in Psychiatry and Neurology "Ms. Castagnaro's poems tell the moving story of her lonely, brave and stormy battle for the discovery and recovery of Self. She freed herself from captivity to the psychiatric gulag and her books are her gift to other victims of Psychiatry." --Seth Farber, Ph.D Author, The Spiritual Gift of Madness: The Failure of Psychiatry and the Rise of the Mad Pride Movement "[Ms. Castagnaro's] poems offer graceful moments that indicate the author's promise,...the poet is clearly passionate and knowledgeable about many subjects." --BlueInk Review

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Copyright © 2013 by Luisa Castagnaro.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 08/17/2016

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CONTENTS

PART 1

Expressions

Wild Wren

Waves Embracing Emptiness

Old Coney Island

The Purr-fect Purr

Grapes

Janet’s Dream

Madness

Passages

Nature

Christmas Tree

Depression

Reckoning

Colors Tell Me Different Stories

Cry Unto Myself

Feelings

Clean-up Woman

The Motor

Madness

So Tense

House of broken mirror sounds

The Sound of Madness

Psychiatric

Forgetful Sleep

Like a Black Rose

My Name Is Psychiatry

Dedicated to pain as a psychiatric survivor

Ode to the Doctor

Love As Woe

The Rejected Lover’s Complaint

To a Love Recanted

The Holy of Holies

Life And Death

Death So Sweetly Drowns

The Snake

PART 2

Pithy Pennies

Stimulants

Grief

Surprise!

For Him, It’s…

MUSIC

East & West

Quicksilver

Yahweh

Diseases

Mangia!

Decisive Choice

Revelation

Trapped

Panacea

In Court

Numbers

Grass

Help!

College ’81

What’s Your Major?

Poison

Espadrilles

The Brain

The Clown

Logical Nonsense

Drops

Love And Death Resolved

Eros

Nickels & Dimes

William

Laurel & Hardy

Genius

Pesto

What I Like

Spring

At The Library

Lost

Ape To Man

To Mom And Dad

Idle Moment

Schizo-Art

On Being And Nothingness

The Other

Dollars and Cents

CAT-Disease

The Flower

I Am One

Colors

Key in the Lock

Where?

High School Sings the Blues

A Wreath of Hollywood

Margaux

Rocky

Ingmar Bergman

Woody Allen

Yes, I Am Woman

Birth A La Feminist

Contraception

God and Woman

The Disowned Hag

PART 3