Sphinx: The Summit

shining knight diving under
falsely serene waters of mortal silence

tears and laughter and rage she opens doors
lets a tiny light shine on undesirable truths in need

enduring trembling sporadic back and forth
off the path and back, Lots-a-lot won't let you be lost alone

is this not the point

In this modern epic poetry collection, Moonlily, an education assistant, joins a classroom camping expedition up Sphinx Mountain, a forbidding peak in the Ktunaxa Homelands, British Columbia. An unexpected overnight snowfall and the teacher's failure to respond appropriately endanger the entire group. After a harrowing climb back down, Moonlily files a feedback form outlining her concerns about the expedition.

Instead of instigating the change she hopes to see, this act of good faith plunges her into her worst nightmare, making her question not just her new career in the classroom but her very sanity.

Told through poems that weave images of knights, death, and trauma, this story relates the heartfelt but unvarnished experiences of education assistants who work fervently every day to protect and support the most precious people in our world: children.

Chantal Lunardi believes strongly in community and humanity, two themes she embeds in the core of her work, and which followed her through her divergent careers: mainly in the education and caritative worlds, and ultimately in the classroom and the community working with children and adults with diverse abilities. Her experience in schools, her love for children, and her encounter with the work of medieval mystic Marguerite Porete inspired her to write her first book of poetry, which explores concepts of culture, education, truth telling, and social health.

Beyond writing, Chantal enjoys hiking, regenerative cultivation, and being with her family. She holds a BA and MA in Anthropology from Laval University, Québec, and an interrupted PhD in Multidisciplinary Studies (Anthropology, Education, Philosophy, and Computing) at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia. This book might very well be the heart of the doctoral dissertation she couldn't write at the time. A nomad, Chantal travels between British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.