Contributor: Paul Preston.

Bio Note: Paul is a poet, and singer-songwriter from Lancashire.  He is currently doing research for a doctorate in Archaeology at Oxford University.

Author: Paul Preston

Work: ‘The Exorcism’

My poem ‘The Exorcism’ has a deep seated personal significance for me and as a consequence I have returned to it many times over the last few years since I wrote its first draft in 2004. It was originally written as a song but was later rewritten into a poem. It has transformed from an almost prophetic piece longing for change to a cathartic mantra of looking back on difficult times and the subsequent almost epiphanic decision to step out into the scary new world. I find it a comfort (along with some of my other poetry) because it helps me get a perspective on things: no matter how bad things get today I remember they have been bad before and will get better. I also remember the inspirations for writing this: the books, songs, smells, sounds, and situations that it alludes to. It also reminds me of the deep satisfaction of writing this and the hard decision to change my life which has led to where I am today in Oxford.

Paul Preston: The Exorcism

Vodka Slow motion life’s psychedelic delays
Psychotropic nightmares: my life rewinds-replays
Life polaxed acid: spiral whirlpool descend
These crazy dreams, my old life must end.

Room spins through the bottom of my glass
Run from distant future and my cataclysmic past.
Was going nowhere at three times light speed.
Blinded, ‘fissioned’, think ache: chain reaction feeds.

Morning fallout! Mirror? It’s me I presume?
Petrified stubble, radioactive-razor perfume,
Looking like hell, paranoid and consumed,
Today will break out of my black & blue room.

Cleared out the empties, accepted where I’ve been!
Black coffee & daylight: My new Symphony begins
Turned shook of my sandals, walked away from your prison
New cathartic opus, the final exorcism.

Paul Preston © 2006. Reproduced with permission from the author.