10 OCTOBER 1992, Page 29

No Escape (1)

There's no alternative, No escape; Only through good deeds Can one serve God.

Thus this poem mocks its creator, Who (dismayed by human kind) Sits all daylong Scribbling that truth.

No Escape (2)

Two days.

That's all it took For madness to return, On finishing what I had hoped to be My final poem for at least Two months.

Such is the reality Of living in the heart Of prophetdom: The moment one presumes One deserves a rest, Debilitating, self-destructive, damnable Depression like a desert storm Descends upon one's defenceless head.

Michael Peach