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Eccentric Fish
ECCENTRIC FISH by Dolly Sen is a book swimming with eccentric fish...
'Eccentric fish swimming in set concrete
But still making the shore
Still seeing the sun
Still growing flowers
Still smiling in a world of endless liars.'
A book of poetics offering insight into a darkness of perception among the banalities of everyday life. Sen's unbreakable sense of humour shines like a beacon amid the emotional rubbish-tip of survivor consciousness.
'Eccentric fish swimming in set concrete
But still making the shore
Still seeing the sun
Still growing flowers
Still smiling in a world of endless liars.'
A book of poetics offering insight into a darkness of perception among the banalities of everyday life. Sen's unbreakable sense of humour shines like a beacon amid the emotional rubbish-tip of survivor consciousness.
39 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 19, 2014
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 28, 2017
This is one of Dolly Sen’s collections of poetry. Sen has seen a great deal of the mental health system in Britain. She says herself;
“I had my first psychotic experience aged 14 and stopped going to school. A series of dead end jobs followed. Pretty early on I decided I didn’t want any more of the 9-5 shit and spoon race, and began to write … and maybe watch 70s cop shows”
Sen recounts the history of her experience of the inside of the mental health system in two excellent autobiographies. Apart from writing poetry and autobiographies Sen also blogs, performs, is a mental health consultant, has written a novel, been involved in Mad Pride and much more.
This collection of poems is from 2007 and they are wide ranging and often tackling difficult subjects. Some are quite quirky as well:
“Psychiatrist conference
Free pens!
I took one
Before I went to talk to docs on
What it is like to be mad
The ink was temperamental:
Wrote only half the words
Nobody knew what I wanted to say.
I scream in frustration – arrggghh
But those are not my words
Just what you made say
Psychiatrist, read between the lines
Stop giving me things that do not work.
This is not a poem but a moan but I put it in the book anyway”
There are hard hitting poems here, one in particular about someone on the edge of society called Please Don’t Touch
“Spit stains corners the mouth that can’t explain
Scars mean some human contact in his life
Detritus on his head, in his head
Grey hand holding that blue can
Inducing disgust in every fucking human that passes
His unwashed absolution ensuring
The distance of everyone
So no-one can see the tears in his eyes”
Sen doesn’t do easy or neat, but she is eloquent and passionate and these poems are worth looking up.
“I had my first psychotic experience aged 14 and stopped going to school. A series of dead end jobs followed. Pretty early on I decided I didn’t want any more of the 9-5 shit and spoon race, and began to write … and maybe watch 70s cop shows”
Sen recounts the history of her experience of the inside of the mental health system in two excellent autobiographies. Apart from writing poetry and autobiographies Sen also blogs, performs, is a mental health consultant, has written a novel, been involved in Mad Pride and much more.
This collection of poems is from 2007 and they are wide ranging and often tackling difficult subjects. Some are quite quirky as well:
“Psychiatrist conference
Free pens!
I took one
Before I went to talk to docs on
What it is like to be mad
The ink was temperamental:
Wrote only half the words
Nobody knew what I wanted to say.
I scream in frustration – arrggghh
But those are not my words
Just what you made say
Psychiatrist, read between the lines
Stop giving me things that do not work.
This is not a poem but a moan but I put it in the book anyway”
There are hard hitting poems here, one in particular about someone on the edge of society called Please Don’t Touch
“Spit stains corners the mouth that can’t explain
Scars mean some human contact in his life
Detritus on his head, in his head
Grey hand holding that blue can
Inducing disgust in every fucking human that passes
His unwashed absolution ensuring
The distance of everyone
So no-one can see the tears in his eyes”
Sen doesn’t do easy or neat, but she is eloquent and passionate and these poems are worth looking up.
Displaying 1 of 1 review