"Then his brain began to bleed"

After multiple strokes, severe depression, and a lengthy recovery, poet Alex Lemon called his new collection Happy.  The Houston Chronicle investigates:

So it is that Lemon's Happy isn't so much a smiley face platter, but a smiley face platter that has been dropped, broken and painstakingly glued back together. Lemon tells his story with a rough and roughed up charm, humor and warmth that find rewards in a hard-earned happiness.

Q: The descriptions of your physical symptoms were so vivid, but do you feel like words still failed to convey what it was like?
A: Of course. Have you read Elaine Scarry's The Body in Pain? She talks about how impossible it is to use language to talk about pain or suffering. The way we talk about it is through simile and metaphor. I still feel like the more I write the closer I get to explaining it. But words still can't get there, and that's fine . . .