CATALIEN, by Oliver Findlay Price

The title Catalien engages with the Surrealist notion of a rebus – a puzzle device that combines images to suggest or depict a new word and requires unexpected creative conjunctions that confuse and then delight when the puzzle resolves itself. The rebus relies on a proliferation of meanings and takes pleasure in both the logical and seemingly illogical. Catalien is a mystical debut collection of poems that harnesses a liberal range of human emotions combined with a deceptively charming wickedness. It incorporates a skillful blend of traditional form with free verse; in amongst a terrain of cats, fish, birds, dolphins, lizards and snakes, the poet deftly draws the reader into his idiosyncratic world.