Augusta, Maine ? Bright reds and oranges explode in color on a dark underground mural, while a quiet evergreen forest screens a blue lake and mountain on another.

Artwork and poetry bring life to the dreary walls of a little-known network of tunnels connecting the complex of buildings that long housed Maine’s mental patients. Some of the murals and verses, which have been posted on the Internet, tell stories of pain and loneliness that shadowed the lives of those who were confined to the Augusta Mental Health Institute.

A poem titled “Rain on My Soul” begins with the line, “Walked too far to ever get back to my sweet home again,” and ends with a prayer to “make our hearts to shine.”

An unidentified poet wrote, “If my heart could speak, I’m sure it would say,/ ‘I wish I were someplace else Today.’ Among These books, a great amount of Knowledge There must be,/ But what good is Knowledge where others carry the keys … “

But there’s also a brighter side.

“It’s real work created by real people,” says Gary Sawyer, who photographed many of the works that are posted on the Internet. “You can see the joy of people in treatment.”

Patients gained an emotional outlet when they were encouraged to express themselves in the tunnels by Natasha Mayers, a prominent Maine artist who taught art at the institute a generation ago. Mayers also brought in professional artists from across Maine to brighten up one of the tunnels while they were still used by patients and support staff as underground sidewalks between buildings.

The art served two purposes, Mayers said: It helped patients “to communicate with each other and have fun, and to make the tunnels feel safer.” Also, she said, “People were scared to go into the tunnels, and to be able to go there and look at art made it less scary.”

The tunnels protected patients and staff from Maine’s sometimes-hostile weather as they went between the psychiatric hospital’s dormitories and support buildings. They also were used for coal, laundry and food service deliveries and are still in use as conduits for utility lines. Desks and boxes are piled up in some portions, and peeling paint dangles from ceilings in older sections.

Intersections within the dimly lighted catacombs remain marked by traffic signs pointing to the barber shop, kitchen, canteen, sewing room and other destinations.