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JUHANI AHVENJÄRVI CLAES ANDERSSON EVA-STINA BYGGMÄSTAR TOMAS MIKAEL BÄCK AGNETA ENCKELL MARTIN ENCKELL TUA FORSSTRÖM PENTTI HOLAPPA JOUNI INKALA RIINA KATAJAVUORI JYRKI KIISKINEN TOMI KONTIO JUKKA KOSKELAINEN LEEVI LEHTO HEIDI LIEHU RAKEL LIEHU LAURI OTONKOSKI MARKKU PAASONEN ANNUKKA PEURA MIRKKA REKOLA HENRIKA RINGBOM PENTTI SAARITSA HELENA SINERVO EIRA STENBERG ANNI SUMARI ILPO TIIHONEN SIRKKA TURKKA MERJA VIROLAINEN KJELL WESTÖ (ANDERS HED) |
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MERJA VIROLAINEN (b. 1962) has published four collections of poems, Hellyyttäsi taitat gardenian (Because of Your Tenderness You Break a Gardenia, 1990), Tervapeili (Tar Mirror, 1995), Pilvet peittävät sisäänsä pilvet (Clouds Encompass Clouds, 2000) and Olen tyttö, ihanaa! (I'm a Girl, Wonderful!, 2004). She has also written a book about shamanism and witchcraft and a play called Täyttymyskomedia (Fulfilment Comedy, 1993). Virolainen has also worked as translator, translating Keats, Shelley, Dickinson and Indian modern poetry among others.
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THE ROUGH FRICTION OF OPPOSITES |
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Autumnal night pauses as I pause moon, my jailer, waits in its place as I look at grandma's house once more; as if a tongue in crevices of teeth as if fingertips on my face I remember every nook there. In the hallway hands of a Sylvania flame glide over the discarded work clothes, grandma's scarf on a peg smells of forehead's sweat and hair, grandpa's windbreaker with its fish scales. Aluminium sound off the doorhandle, the smell of coffee, tobacco -- rabbit roasting in the oven. The yard light used to swing on the sauna path, crouched flat in a puddle like an embryo, in my red boots, I.
No time was measured by a clock, money had no value. Cows were gentle as they pleased, if only their breath would breathe in my lines.
Only an embraceless wind anymore coils itself into a sob in the yard, only the Wolf-bride wanders now looking for her beloved; a black lightning has become a fracture in the fireplace wall, bleached curtains, wings without angels sway in the draft. Where do I find my love? How would moss take me into its arms? Listen, I'll die before my mother does. Take me now. You won't get any more than this.
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 Still
Bottles clink, glasses break
What´s the use of prolonging,...
You put out my heart, like a cig...
Bear Park
That pimply-faced Narcissus
Friend, against my will
This parting of ours, how many...
Quietly sighing like sand
I close my eyes and open again
Oh back, shimmery parchment
This time next year
No, he didn't grow yet
Afterwards everyone leaves
Say, my sagacity, goodbye
I am the last poem
There are no neon lights in Hels...
1.
By speaking from close by
Nothing has been
When a curlew cries
Mother's scent is powder
Grandma, your tissue-paper face...
Autumnal night pauses as I pause
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