The Guild of Overthinkers: The Unimagined Life of an Overactive Brain

This is a collection of poems written over many years about various quirky aspects of the human brain and mind, specifically, mine. If you're interested in the quirks of the human brain and the foibles of the mind then this is the book for you. It tries to explain in mostly rhyming verse what goes on in this poet's head from the excruciating pain of migraine (which, touch wood, seems to be a thing of the past for me), to the annoying business of aphantasia (lack of a minds-eye) and its associated memory recall problems. There is a poem dealing with teenage anxiety about death, one about a wraith I once saw during sleep paralysis, a few about addiction and compulsion, and one recounting a spectacular night of codeine-induced hallucination. I hope at least some of these poems resonate with you if you too are a bit of an overthinker, but if you are more of a pragmatist or doer I would be delighted if they at least give you some insight into another world. In truth, we are none of us all one thing or the other, but some of us are decidedly better at cracking on with the daily drudgery of life without too much trouble. (See the final three poems in this book).

Mulbert (June 2024)