On The Advice of Donna or A Dream, Sally Barrett

A tapestry of memory, humour and lyrical introspection, On the Advice of Donna or A Dream explores identity, time, and everyday peculiarities. With sharp wit, Sally Barrett’s poetry intertwines nostalgic recollections and raw reflections on aging, loss and resilience. We are invited into a paradox, where laughter and melancholia co-exist. 

Sally Barrett has worked in health and social care for over twenty five years. Her life experiences are weaved into this collection as she navigates her own personal life with love, marriage, family, friends and change.

The Social Worker

She puts her name badge near my face. She might have had the insight to see people as having a past, she might be person-centred and have holistic assessment skills. When I was younger I worked really hard to comprehend the people I supported as having a youth, especially when this was a long time from them. I wave to a photo from our forties. For people I knew personally it was difficult to see them as older than they were when I was young. The relationship dynamic remains. I notice him power napping in the recliner. In middle age I became aware of my social place and since this period I have regularly had to remind myself that I am not young.

In ‘The Social Worker’. Barrett struggles with the challenge of seeing herself and others as fully multi-dimensional beings. “I have regularly had to remind myself that I am not young,” captures the dissonance between her internal self-perception and her growing awareness of physical aging. This paradox reveals an emotional barrier that restricts a deeper human connection, reflecting on how the transactional nature of professional roles, can dehumanize relationships, specifically in the workplace, where identity is often reduced to formalities and procedures. In her confessional reflection, she explores the barriers that prevent us from fully acknowledging the depth and humanity of those we interact with on a daily basis. Barrett recollects moments from her youth - moments that were not yet regulated by societal expectations and memories where wonder takes precedence over bureaucracy. This collection brings forth two contrasting states of human experience: childhood freedom and adult constraint, emotionally reflecting on how societal and even self-imposed barriers can shape and often limit a deeper human experience between us.