[New-Poetry] Back When I Was Normal

[jforjames at aol.com]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/02/20/ST2009022003192.html
Back When I Was Normal

Mental illness robbed Roger Fogelman of a bright future as a poet. Was it too late to redeem his legacy?

By Marla Brown Fogelman
Sunday, February 22, 2009; Page W16 


In 1961, a University of Virginia graduate student named Roger Fogelman, who had been diagnosed as a schizophrenic, was awarded an Academy of American Poets University and College Poetry Prize. His work appeared in the Academy's 1960-1966 anthology along with that of Louise Glück , who would go on to become the 2003-2004 U.S. poet laureate. 


Roger did not become a poet laureate, but he did become my brother-in-law. 

As his caregiver Maureen opens the apartment door on this late summer day in 2008, I see that my brother-in-law, Roger, former award-winning poet and current shut-in, is planted on a couch by a wall. Wearing a gray T-shirt and plaid pajama-like pants, he looks heavier than I've ever seen him, but his gray hair looks freshly washed and combed. 


"I'm doomed," he says in greeting. 

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