Follow, poet, follow right / To the bottom of the night, / With your unconstraining voice / Still persuade us to rejoice;
With the farming of a verse / Make a vineyard of the curse, / Sing of human unsuccess / In a rapture of distress;
In the deserts of the heart / Let the healing fountain start, / In the prison of his days / Teach the free man how to praise.
from "In Memory of W. B. Yeats" by W. H. Auden
Brian O'Neill served as Writer-in-Residence at the Madison State Hospital for 18 years. He also served on the editorial board of The Journal for Poetry Therapy and as the poetry editor of College English. His poetry has appeared in many journals including the Yale Review, American Scholar, and Partisan Review.