Eleni Zisimatos reviews Kristjana Gunnars' snake charmers : a cycle of twenty poems (2016)

Eleni Zisimatos reviews Kristjana Gunnars' snake charmers : a cycle of twenty poems (2016) over at the Vallum blog. Thanks so much! You can see the original review here. Come out to hear Gunnars launch the chapbook tomorrow night in Edmonton!

Kristjana Gunnars’, “snake charmers: a cycle of twenty poems” is a rich body of poems strongly evocative of place and mysticism. Her writing style is fluid, with colourful description and emotional tenor:

There is that empty chair, forever.
I can almost hear it whisper:

alone in the middle of the ceramic
tile floor, the herringbone blue, white,
crossing forever, a tossing sea of earth
and a garden table with no cups
and no utensils or flowers, fanning
round in royal blue mosaic, a red
cushion slightly off center on the brown
wicker chair.

This is our courtyard
of existence: these are the things in it,

this dark chair, the pillow
askance, the warm air, heavy, still thick
with the trace of your shadow.

The entire book resonates with lines like these, and the reader is able to enter into an exotic landscape where not everything is as it seems. It is well-worth the read. /ez