Karen Yelena Olsen

Kaleidoscope: Poems in Bloom delights the senses through beautifully descriptive poems in concert with vivid watercolor images, to create a richly evocative visual experience rarely seen in volumes of poetry. The author's forty two poems reflect her passion for language and her keen observation of the flowering world both in the countryside surrounding her tiny village on the Greek island of Crete, and in the Minnesota of her youth. Following nature s seasonal flow, Kaleidoscope begins with a bouquet of springtime wildflowers, from the shy wild orchid that waves its tiny butterfly wings to the scarlet fringe of poppies adorning the fields of April and May. It then continues on to summer, honoring the survivors of searing heat ( nettles, thistles, thorns / those tough denizens of drought) and finally celebrates the turn to autumn. In Crete this is a time of ripening oranges and olives and also of new growth, as the long-awaited rains inspire the return of the pale pink cyclamen and the first glimpse of anemone, that tiny scrap of indigo silk. Unique among contemporary poetry books, almost every page of Kaleidoscope boasts a complementary watercolor image. Created by the talented artist Joan Elkins, these forty eight fluid images reflect the vibrant and fleeting life of flowers that inspire the poems themselves. The reader is invited to walk along with poet and artist and savor their shared visions of the flowering world.