Electric Verses

Etusivu : Welcome to Electric Verses! : Tomi Kontio

Tomi Kontio

Tomi Kontio

Tomi Kontio (b. 1966) first collection of poems, Tanssisalitaivaan alla (Under the Ballroom Sky) was published in 1993. Since that he has published two more, Lukinkehrä (Harvestman’s Spindle, 1996) and Taivaan latvassa (At the Crown of the Sky, 1998). In addition to these volumes of poerty, he has written four works of prose. He was awarded twice the J. H. Erkko Prize, and the Finlandia Junior Prize in 2000 for his juvenile novel Keväällä isä sai siivet (In Spring Dad Got Wings).


THE SUBURBAN ROMANTIC

Every sign on your body I knew by heart,
every star, every letter,
in their light my movements turned into shadows
and all my deeds into the darkness of the world.
Pegasus departed from the nightstand to liberate Andromeda
and left an imprint of his flight on the sky.
I will stamp you on a rock
and the name of that rock is time.
Now that your light has disappeared from my room
and the wind has released its hold from the window sill,
I don’t remember or know you anymore,
but the letters do and that universe
into which you’ve been written,
that shadow, that lining of the poet’s cape.

From Taivaan latvassa (At the Crown of the Sky), 1998. Translated by Sarka Hantula. Published in ICE-FLOE Vol. II, Number 2, Winter Solstice 2001.

  • Every sign on your body
  • Every snowflake draws
  • Even if you left
  • The Milky Way is not incandescen…
  • Coma Berenices
  • Eridanus
  • Lyra
  • Cassiopeia
  • I WENT
  • Mater, fons amoris
  • The hanged
  • Under the dance-floor sky
  • Venus
  • Let us dance
  • Take me
  • Premonition of autumn
  • Babble love
  • The oars of stars
  • Occultism