Kaleido by Kandace Siobhan Walker

‘Kaleido returns us to the roaring, bright intersections of subjecthood and reality, to love, its totems, collisions and puncture-wounds. These are poems of genuine, casual modernism, deft musicality, intelligence and attentiveness; Walker’s voice is extraordinary. This is a vanguard debut that has found its new language.’ Jack Underwood

‘Kaleido is a sharp and palindromic examination of our contemporary moment—medicine and occultism come together to make tourmaline the lives of those denied agency under capitalism. Walker draws luminance from the quotidian, depicting the beautiful and horrific intensities of trying to live now.’ Susannah Dickey

‘A master of wordplay, and storytelling, Walker flexes her poetry muscles offering powerful imagery and ideas that will return to you days after putting down this book. A wonderful collection of carefully-crafted language spells masquerading as poems.’ Hanan Issa

Kandace Siobhan Walker’s double pamphlet is a dextrous, inventive take on the tarot’s Major Arcana. Mirrored in its entirety, Kaleido explores the archetypes in both upright and reversed positions—attesting to Walker’s superb formal skill and compelling line in existential enquiry. Summoning spirit guides, girlhood ennui, quetiapine dreams and Minnie Riperton, this speaker seeks certainty in biblical gardens, noisy bars and fast Cadillacs, in South East London, Sapelo Island and the Brecon Beacons. Kaleido is an enthralling, unforgettable debut.