We Mad Climb Shaky Ladders

PAMELA SPIRO WAGNER is a prize-winning writer who suffers from schizophrenia, complicated by narcolepsy and CNS Lyme disease. One of a pair of identical twins, she attended Brown University graduating magna cum laude. She subsequently attended medical school for a little over a year before being hospitalized for psychiatric care.

"The word "mad" may conjure up notions that are either arty or primitive. Neither would apply in this case. One of the more stunning qualities of these poems is their composure, their lack of interest in histrionics. The poet's ability to examine her behavior is both edifying and harrowing. A poem such as "Offering," that speaks to the narrator's burning herself with a lighted cigarette, is remarkable in its ability to turn and turn again as it considers the behavior... One realizes that once this poem was written this poet could write any poem because she has the ability to indulge metaphor yet not let up a jot on the terror of real circumstances. Whatever else has befallen her, in her poems she seems incapable of backing down..." BARON WORMSER"