In the bad old days they used to lock lunatics away in asylums. Alice, one of my grandmothers, spent years in Birmingham’s All Saints Mental Asylum, now part of Winson Green Prison. Her husband’s mother Fanny had been institutionalised (as we now call it) in Staffordshire’s County Lunatic Asylum, for a while. It was not women only: the census of 1911 for the asylum reveals that Fanny was one of 472 female and 438 male patients.

I haven’t been able to get records that show the reasons why they were put there, or the diagnosis for either. On definitions, the National Archives state that “lunatic” was used to describe a person who was “sometimes of good and sound memory and understanding, and sometimes not.” “Idiot” described “natural fools from birth.” A great miscellany of reasons for referral appear on other patients’ records. Including, for example, Masturbation For Thirty Years, Over Action Of The Mind, Feebleness Of Intellect, Fever And Loss Of Law Suit, Excitement As Officer, Religious Enthusiasm, Dissolute Habits, Salvation Army, Egotism, Women Trouble, and Grief.

These days, all the above are regarded as within the ambit of normality. Many of my friends are sometimes of good and sound memory and understanding, and sometimes not. I myself have been a natural fool from birth. And indeed, when I consider the state of the world, it is impossible not to conclude that we are all quite mad.

next door’s dog—
how it cowers 
when I appear 

Keith Evetts

is a retired British diplomat who lives in the UK. His scientific papers are published in Nature and elsewhere; his long-form poetry in The Oxford Magazine and Linnet’s Wings; his cherita in The Cherita; and his haiku and related short forms in Blithe Spirit, Cattails, Cold Moon Journal, Failed Haiku, Heliosparrow, Mambu, Presence, Prune Juice, The Asahi Shimbun, Wales Haiku Journal, World Haiku Review, and at The Haiku Foundation. His work has been anthologized in the Red Moon Anthologies of haiku and haibun, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Touchstone Awards.

Evetts is listed among the European Top 100 Haiku Authors in 2021, and hosts the weekly haiku commentary feature at The Haiku Foundation. He’s married, with five children, a grey parrot, and a sense of humour.