Links, quotes and recommendations

I've posted a new homophonic translation of the first verse of Time and the Water (Tíminn og vatnið) by Steinn Steinarr, over at my poetry blog, called Teaming of what, Ned?

Martin Johs. Möller posted my Biskops Arnö reading on the Brink.

Mirroring language's tendency to mirror itself I will link to Charles Bernstein's linking of my essay The importance of destroying a language (of one's own) - linked as a "terrific essay on new transnational poetry", which makes me gleeful and giddy.

The essay also just showed up at Nypoesi.net.

For those who understand Icelandic - Kári Páll Óskarsson writes about recently deceased poet Elías Mar for Tíu þúsund tregawött here.

Kistan just published a few poems from Kristian Guttesens newest book, Glæpaljóð, here (in Icelandic). A nice change, since I don't remember seeing poetry being published there since... maybe 2002, when 3 poets were featured, Komnino Zervos, Kristín Ómarsdóttir and Bragi Ólafsson.

The debate over the power of the post-avant in Sweden continues - Anna Hallberg asks why Johan Lundberg can't be bothered to read, and Johan Lundberg retorts by saying that he never used the word "conspiracy". (Evidently he can't be bothered to write what Anna reads neither).

Reading Camus' Rebel for the first time, I get the distinct feeling that every other word is citable, which would be an interesting project (meanwhile also reading Grettis saga, and feeling that I want to write up the names of all the characters, which are beautiful and hilarious).

"Romanticism demonstrates, in fact, that rebellion is part and parcel of dandyism; one of its objectives is outward appearances. In its conventional forms, dandyism admits a nostalgia for ethics. It is only honour degraded as a point of honour. But at the same time it inaugurates an aesthetic which is still valid in our world, and aesthetic of solitary creators, who are obstinate rivals of a God they condemn. From romanticism onward, the artist's task will not only be to create a world, or to exalt beauty for its own sake, but also to define an attitude. Thus the artist becomes a model and offers himself as an example: art is his ethic. With him begins the age of the directors of conscience. When the dandies fail to commit suicide or do not go mad, they make a career and pursue prosperity. Even when, like Vigny, they exclaim that they are going to keep quiet, their silence is piercing.

But at the very heart of romanticism, the sterility of this attitude becomes apparent to a few rebels who provide a transitional type between the eccentrics and our revolutionary adventurers. Between the days of the eighteenth-century eccentric and the "adventurers" of the twentieth century, Byron and Shelley are already fighting, however ostentatiously, for freedom." - Albert Camus, The Rebel (transl. Anthony Bower).

My runner-up prize winning poem for Ljóðstafur Jóns úr Vör, Parabólusetning, was published in the latest Tímarit Máls og menningar magazine as well as my retort article to a review of the year 2005 in Icelandic poetry, that was published in Són magazine last year.

Books I've acquired recently and recommend:

Martin Glaz Serup - 4: et digt - for which he received the Michael Strunge prize. Published by adressens forlag.

Oscar Rossi - Kelvinator and Brev till polisen, published by Söderströms.

Agneta Enckell - innanför/utanför, also published by Söderströms.

Audiatur - katalog for ny poesi - The catalogue for the Audiatur poetry festival in Bergen, 2005. A massive book that I'm not fully through with yet, but will munch on in the following months.

said like reeds or things by Mark Truscott, from Coach House books - a Basho meets bpNichol sort of book.

Nerve Squall - Sylvia Legris - Coach House books.

Dyslexicon - by Stephen Cain - I've only read little bits of this, but I really liked his American Standard / Canada Dry, and this one looks good. Also Coach House.

Another Coach House book I just got is bpNichols Zygal, but that hardly needs introduction.

FIG - Caroline Bergvall - from Salt publishing.

fait accompli - Nick Piombino - Heretical texts.

Scrawl (from the markings of a small her(o)) by Susana Gardner. A wonderful chapbook from dusie.

From the Nifin (Nordic institute in Finland) library I've been looking at Svenska dikt by Lars Mikael Raattamaa, På era platser by Anna Hallberg and Swinging with neighbours (huge with many poets), all of which are recommended.

I've also received a lot of poetry through email, word and pdf's, for the Ntamo anthology, including works from people like gherardo bortolotti, Nico Vassilakis, Malte Persson, Rita Dahl, Rachel Levitsky, Rod Summers, Craig Dworkin, Ulf Karl Olov Nilsson, derek beaulieu, Jan Hjort et al.

And in Helsinki the sun is shining. I need new pants and shoes that don't hurt.