Dakota Snaketail

Ghost Speak Dakota Snaketail

"'A shapeless fog rolls through the trees of me, whispering, 'You'llnever be unlost.' The writer Dakota Snaketail has been diagnosed with schizoaffective bipolar type disorder. I start my write-up with this fact as I found the illness to be not only the main recurring subject in his poetry, but also defining the style in which the poems are written. Every single line is devoid of any light, hope or breathing space. There is only room for fear, suffering and suicidal thoughts. A suffocating atmosphere which might be so overtly heavy it could not be taken serious, until you learn about the disorder. All humor is of a sarcastic, ironic nature. 'Laugh; because there is nothing to laugh about.' There is alot of cleverly used repetition throughout the book as well. Words and word combinations are repeated (and often reshaped) so many times that is has little to do with wordplay, but all the more with the compulsive nature of the writer. Another clear sign of not knowing what to make of (his) life anymore is the abundant use of questions. Worth to mention as well is that Dakota has provided the book with alot of his artwork. Paintings consisting of very simplistic forms and dark colors, which in my opinion worked quite effective as visual accompaniment to the words written next to them. Overall this was an interesting read, though certainly not a light one. It did give me a glimpse into the mindset and emotional whirlwind of the author who is suffering so heavily that suicide always lurks around the corner, and that glimpse was given completely in all his repetitive and manic urgency.- Damien De Coene