Take Five Seroquel and Call Me in the Morning

About the Book

This book, “Take Five Seroquel and Call Me in the Morning” is a collection of poetry that I have written over the past year or so, along with a collection of illustrations I have done over the same period of time.

Many of the poems in this book, but not all are about experiences I have had dealing with major mental illness, such as the poems “Schizophrenia”, “Delusion”, “Confined” and “Electroconvulsive Therapy”. Others have to do with self image such as “Lake” and “Self Portrait” . There are a few that deal with personification by nature, such as “Golden Tree”

The images in this book are scanned paintings, scanned collages, and digital artwork.

The collages were done with tissue paper, colored paper, magazine cutouts, ribbon, fabric,glitter, sequins, bookmarks, and some were combined with other media such as acrylic paint or tempera paint. The collages in their original form were done on 11”by 14” poster board.

Other images- such as the image depicting the snake and the orange face with green hair against the orange background goes with the poem “Schizophrenia “ and was done when I was in the National Institutes of Health in 2005-2006 doing a research protocol, as was the painting of my room there from an aerial view “My Room in the Institution.” Other paintings are more recent.

I discovered digital art when I purchased a computer in April of 2007. I stated dabbling in the paint accessory; Snag it and editing the graphics with Picassa and Photosmart softwares to create special effects. In my book there are two images I did with the Snag it- “Capture an Image” software and a few others I did with the paint accessory on the computer. The computer opened up a whole new world of creativity for me.

I begin my book with a positive affirmation “My Testimony” where I describe in my own words that I always try to look at the cup “half full”, and end the book on a positive note with the poem “Dawn” in which I describe a breathtaking winter scene at sunrise.

This book would interest mental health professionals, people who have suffered or have family members who suffer from mental illness, or any adult reader. This book is not intended for a child to read, as some of the illustrations are a bit too bizarre and graphic and might frighten a young reader I want to thank the staff at NIH for all they did for me – if it not had been for them, I may still be almost completely unable to function, let alone able to write a book. I wish to thank also a few friends that I have that opened the world of creativity to me, and encouraged me to do the protocol.

Claudia A. Krizay

About the Author

I am a fifty two year old woman living with the illness schizophrenia. I started writing about two years ago. I have been an artist for many years. I was born in Washington D.C. and have lived in Brazil, Zaire, and Germany. I have traveled to many places in my life as my father was in the Foreign Service. I live alone in my own condominium, am unemployed, enjoy long walks in the woods, painting, digital art, photography, painting, collage, decoupage, bead stringing, decorative art, and writing poetry. I have published another book entitled “Take Five Seroquel and Call Me in the Morning, two poems in the magazine “Transcendent Visions” (“Rain” and “Confined”), and won first place in an online poetry contest “writearoundtheblock” entitled “Summer” which was published in my first book.