The Fragmentarium and Other Poems

Rough-painted, decked out in gathered scraps, Chris Pannell's poems are the dolls of the ventriloquist. They sit up straight on his knee, unpretending. Their smiles are terrifying. So many voices! Now a tongue-in-cheek journalist, decrying a broken world; now a sad Eros, mouthing the pains of his hard-earned bittersweet; sometimes the messenger Hermes, visiting the globe with grim prophecy; somtimes the Odyssean wanderer, trying to find his way home. When the master is finished, the dolls are put away, keep to themselves, go quiet. This book is the beautiful, unadorned case where they lie staring in the dark. Open it if you dare!" - Jeffery Donaldson, poet and critic