Mary Barnes

Mary Barnes played an important role in Dr Joseph Berke's life. It was the 1960's and with R. D. Laing at Kingsley Hall, where he helped Mary Barnes, a nurse who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia to emerge from madness. Barnes later became a famous artist, writer and mystic.

Life

Poem

For 'Angie' of the Play*

She says my name,

Softly, gently,

Mary behind,

Mary in front,

We - are complete

We gasp with relief

All the people are 'with us'.

There is Love and Peace,

Like a babe asleep

The play fades -

To the arms of the night

And the Dark

Its life doth hold -

As a Star,

Embedded in

Time

* Judy Monahan played Angie in the Birmingham and Royal Court, London, productions of' David Edgar's play Mary Barnes.