From the Press:

In this body of work by Standing, we find ourselves at the jagged intersection of faith and fracture. This isn't a hymnal of praise to an "All Benevolent" creator; it is evidence of a psyche under siege.

Standing masterfully subverts the traditional iconography of the Passion, reimagining the divine creator as an architect of agony. The verse forces a confrontation with the morality of a designer who allows the crucifixion of the mind to take place. Standing's strength lies in this refusal to look away from the gore of the "sacred." The work strips the ritual offerings of its holiness and replaces it with a chilling vulnerability of lying naked on the altar. The creator is not a savior, but a spectator—or worse, the executioner.

Through a raw exploration of theodicy, Standing strips away the comfort of religious dogma to reveal the naked, sacrificial reality of human suffering. The poem doesn't question if a creator exists; it questions the character of a creator who would design a mind capable of such profound self-slaughter.

In these lines, sanity isn't merely lost—it is taken.

About the Author:

Mikaela Standing is a writer from the U.K. She draws inspiration from her life growing up working class in North West England and living with bipolar disorder. Poetry has become the art form that has helped her accept and express what she has experienced. Her work can be found in The Awakenings Review.

Instagram @mikaela_standing