A SECOND COMING: [birth of the poet] a memoir

by David L. Swartz

A terrifying descent into madness, the first fearful steps on the path to recovery, this uncompromising memoir captures all the urgent and hypnotic tension of a commercial thriller. A Second Coming-the companion volume to Swartz's great long-poem "The Will to Christ"-is a probing investigation of the unconscious and metaphysical wellsprings of a singular poetic gift. And yet it is more. This story is without question the most accurate portrayal to date of the largely uncharted regions of schizophrenia, a compelling and solitary journey into yogic meditation and a massive abuse of cannabis non-indica. Swartz's manic delusion was the very overthrow of God and cleansing of the evolutionary process. After a twelve-day descent into terror, strapped to a hospital gurney, he emerges to an uncertain future and the realization that his whole experience was neither reality, nor, even more strangely, anything approaching fantasy.

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005