The remarkable Poems for the Asylum was written over several months while poet Daniel J. Lutz was in and out of various mental health facilities while being treated for various illnesses and emotional breakdowns of perhaps some of the toughest moments of his life.

Like reading a journal, the poems within this book are contemplations that approach difficult emotional subjects from the loss of romantic love to grief and personal struggle. The poems record the experience of humanness and desperate striving to obtain understanding of one’s self through the difficult stages of healing. From suicidal to endeavoring to succeed, all aspects of the journey are recorded without apprehension.

These writings are rich with emotion, thought and intelligence put in language that simplifies distress and honors that pain can be beautiful. Daniel J. Lutz’s stunning Poems for the Asylum is a journey through the mind and heart of a person who is willing to show how far the spirit can stretch and though it may falter, it does not have to break.