Electric Verses

Etusivu : Welcome to Electric Verses! : Tomas Mikael Bäck

Tomas Mikael Bäck

Tomas Mikael Bäck

Tomas Mikael Bäck (b. 1946) is a Finland-Swedish poet. In his first collection of poems, Andhämtning (Drawing Breath, 1972), it is already possible to notice his interest in Oriental philosophy and poetry, as he for instance makes use of the haiku form. In the 1980’s his way of writing turned more open, journal-like (Språngmarsch på stället, Running march in one place, 1985). In addition to short poems, prose poems and aphorisms, Bäck has written “nonsense poetry”. He has published 14 books, the latest of which Sol-sordin (Sun Mute, 2000).


THE MUSIC OF STARTLING LANGUAGE

A midsummer night’s stock-exchange. Twist grass. Cried.
Turn yourself into a visionary, fill in
the outlines
in pencil.
Possibility was pleased, snorted.
I don’t want – just un-light.

From Trädgårdssten (Garden Stone), 1995. Translated by David McDuff.

  • A midsummer night’s stock-exchange
  • Waded water-smell up to the neck
  • In times of deluge
  • Doesn’t find the flora
  • I know which poems are being kil…
  • Became silent, in the hut
  • Scrapes rust-free
  • What would I have lacked
  • What I forgot
  • The Japanese beauties
  • Proverbs between the clouds
  • Bow your head towards
  • Beautifully ebbed-away days
  • Neither frame nor black
  • Why did so many buses go
  • Our story was doomed to end
  • Our last excursion à deux
  • My friend and colleague
  • Near the gates of the cemetery
  • Those last two years