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Dropping Ecstasy with the Angels by Dee Rimbaud
ISBN 1904781063 bluechrome P O Box 109, Portishead,
North Somerset BS20 7ZJ; , A5 perfect bound 136pp £7.99

"Ecstasy" ends "So, here’s to you, my friends,/ To empathy and understanding,/ To chilled, bottled water,/ To chemicals that fill you up/ With the spirit of God/ Till your [sic] bursting with so much love." which seems twee in this jaded, cynical, post-modern world, but Dee Rimbaud takes us on a rough journey to get there. "The Morning After" ends, "For the lies and foolish hopes/ The fear of babies and disease./ I deserve this, oh, I deserve this:/ The metal clamps, the indifference,/ The six wee pills/ And the twenty-four hours/ Of nausea, ugliness/ And self-inflicted violence." giving her story and "The Apple of My Eye" could almost be his side of events, "I am absent, as I have always been:/ The reckless father/ Who spiralled out of orbit/ Before you were truly flesh../.../ How could you know/ I wished to gift you something more?...". Ecstasy can be good but has serious side-effects.

Good also to see a poet successfully trying out different voices: the "I" narrator is not always the poet. Best pieces here are the portraits, e.g. "Big Man" moves from the "...violent, twisting turns/ Of his brutalised, wish-fulfilling mythology..." to "...The dinner guests, a sycophantic congregation/ Lapping up the anecdotes of this reformed sinner...". Dee Rimbaud could be talking about his own poetry here in "Asylum Antechamber": "...Lines of your fractured poetry/ Fish-hooked onto my tongue...". There are flaws, e.g. "...When you stare at the stars with me/ Let them be as mysterious/ As only mysteries can be..." (from "Starbright"). However, there is much to savour and remember. Full marks to bluechrome’s production values: properly spaced poems and Dee Rimbaud’s own illustrations.