Catatonia - A Mode of Being Beyond Pathology: An 'Absurd' Poem

Sometimes one is more fascinated by the conceptual and symbolic architecture that could surround a phenomenon. The poem, "Catatonia - A Mode of Being Beyond Pathology" explores the same dimension. It takes the schizophrenic catatonia or the catatonic stupor and imagines what its subjective experience might feel like, when spiritually idealised. Strictly speaking, this is not an attempt to undermine the often-reported experiential "horrors" and the "terrorising" feelings, among others, that usually constitute the 'actual' subjective experience of it. The poem, on my part, is only a creative and imaginative endeavour that follows a strictly conceptual fascination with the "hows" and "whys" of catatonia. In this regard, the reader must pay closer attention to the phrase, "A Mode of Being Beyond Pathology" that serves as a descriptive and cautious anchor to how catatonia is treated in the poem.

Frozen.

Warped physicality - 

A mode of being.

Stuck.

Held by the Unknown

in a state timeless.

Or held by the Sisters - 

The Fates,

Tangled in the knots of their threads.

Individual destinies - the Fates aren't,

But only proclivities they are,

A nudge, a pull,

That yellow wildflower that 

compulsively pulls,

 To trap in the stillness of awe.

Stuck.

Held by the Unknown

in a state of awe,

Marvelling at the wildflower.

Frozen.

A warped physicality - 

A concern no longer.

Water that rises

to escape Thalassa's touch,

Forgets the unpleasant salt,

To fall back

as sweet rain.

Parched lips find home.

Time as film reels

is transcended

to become the experience of time

as the Now.

Catatonia.

Gaurav Chandra Tuli