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Featured Poet: Gerður Kristný



Eyewear is very glad to welcome to these pages, today, the Icelandic poet and novelist Gerður Kristný (pictured). Kristný was born in 1970, and has a degree in French and comparative literature from the University of Iceland.  She is a successful children's novelist, as well as one of her country's leading poets.  She is married, and has a family.


She travels widely to international festivals, such as the recent Maastricht International Poetry Nights (October 28-30) where I met her as a fellow reader.  I was impressed with her reading style, and the look of her spare, decisive poems on the page.  She explores the Sagas, religious images, myth, feminist concerns, relationships, and the icy landscape of her home, in her minimalist, clipped, ironic, and suggestive poems, which contain the proverbial nine-tenths of their force and heft beneath their surfaces.


 Departure

At the end
of the ramp
I inadvertently glance back

but you have vanished from view

Beyond the glass
a new day lifts itself
off the pavement
the blue of the mountains
spreads across my mind

as I turn
to continue on my way
I trip on my hem
my journey’s designed
for a bigger woman than me

The plane waits on the runway
and I feel as if
the propeller’s bitter blades
have entered my heart

poem by Gerður Kristný; translated by V.A. Cribb.  Poem posted with permission of the author.

Comments

Poetry Pleases! said…
Dear Todd

Nice poem. Nice poet! I can see why she might have caught your attention!

Best wishes from Simon
She stands out, as a poet.
Nancy Mattson said…
I like this poem very much & would like to know where I can find more of her work translated into English.

Thanks,
Nancy
EYEWEAR said…
I would like to see a collection of hers translated into English and am communicating with people about that now.

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