I light my
fingers on fire
and slam them
into the wall

searching for a way
out”

-from “Fire Ants”

After just one read, Kayt Christensen’s Inevitable Ignition has become one of my favorite books of poetry.  I’ve loved what I’d read of her work previously but, reading this collection as a whole, I was absolutely blown away by her incredibly powerful words.

Chrstensen opens this collection with a resonant epigraph from one of my favorite writers, Zelda Fitzgerald: “Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.”  Inevitable Ignition considers all that builds in the heart—the pain, the love, and everything that grows in between. Emotion burns through each page. 

The book is split into sections that reflect that burn: fuel, spark, & combustion. Reading each section becomes the experience of the burning fire; it builds and burns and, even as it goes out, smolders and lingers long after it’s gone.  You can still smell the smoke, so to speak, after you’ve put the book back on the shelf.  

Purchase your copy of Inevitable Ignition from Wide Eyes Publishing

kayt christensen poetry poetry review wide eyes publishing