Romantic Criminals

With Romantic Criminals, Karlanna Lewis’ surrealistic poetry glides between the American West and East and Western and Eastern Europe—all the while keeping a consistent dancing beat. Merging even more borders than her previous collection, Cante de Gitanas de Luz / Songs of the Gypsies with Names of Light, Lewis’ poetry is mysterious yet personal. The poetic images are familiar, but twisted. A common theme is the human body, but taken to new possibilities, as with the “tongues so long we/ wrapped them around our heads for hair” in the poem “Tea Dippers.” Just as fantastical are the pen and ink drawings accompanying every poem, focusing on strange relations. We connect to both the poems and illustrations, and at the same time, our imaginations are stirred by their small hints of absurdity.