crackerwax

I’m not going to go into how great a comedian Spike Milligan was because as good a comedian as he was, he was a better poet. Try this light hearted stuff for size.

I thought I saw Jesus on a tram.
I said, Are you Jesus?
He said, Yes. I am.

Although probably most famous for his light hearted nonsense poetry, most of it a lot more nonsensical than that one, he did do a great deal of serious stuff.

Suffering from depression all of his life, Milligan suffered from several major mental breakdowns and often locked himself away from the rest of the world and refused to communicate with anyone. Of his depression he said:

It’s the nature of who you are. You will see sunsets in a special way, you will see life in a special way.

I very much agree with him on this. Depression to me is the flip side of intelligence, the power to think turning itself inside out, like a mirror reflecting another mirror, on and on to infinity. As sad as it is I’d rather be a depressive than go through life in an unthinking daze.

Back to Spike though, and one of his finest pieces.

Strange lovers may caress you
But once, long ago
You were mine forever.
So should I reach into that past
And touch you with invisible fingers
Don’t move away.

Beautiful.