richard lopez Reviews
All
Hat, No Cattle by lars palm
(gradient
book, Finland, 2015)
Earlier in
this new century poet Eileen Tabios [editor of this review journal] founded a
new form of poetry, the hay[na]ku. A hybrid form of haiku and Filipino
expression, written as a three-line verse: first line one word, second line two
words, third line three words. This new form of poetry, simple as it appears to
be, flexed into a nearly infinite variety of writings by its myriad
practitioners. In short, the form shot like a rocket in popularity and now
there are dozens of individual collections of hay[na]ku poetry and three
anthologies dedicated to the hay[na]ku.
And now we
have this marvelous collection of hay[na]ku by the Swedish poet lars palm. palm
composes most of his poetry in his kind of English (I say ‘kind of English’
because the language has many variations of idioms and modes of writing). The
language is vernacular and raw and similar to the kind of agit-punk rock bands
like Crass and New Model Army.
Take for
example this poem.
truTH?
no
thank
you.
will not
have any capital
letters in
that
You see,
palm is a lower-case visionary poet. He is interested in truth. But not the
capital T truth of the philosophers and exemplars of moral relativism. palm’s poetry expresses outrage at social
injustice and fiscal and environmental malfeasance. But then even in anger palm
is a poet of tenderness, joviality, and friendship. He’s a guy you want to have
a few beers with and talk about marriage, poetry, and share with him the rage
of an unjust humankind.
portugese
winter in
his pocket &
ale from newcastle
on the
bar
I would be
disingenuous if I didn’t confess my admiration for lars palm as a poet, and as
a friend. It ain’t like he can do no wrong but for goodness sake he can do
better in English as his second language than many of us [me] can do in English
as a native tongue.
For there
is something special in palm’s poetry. Perhaps it is that punk spirit I
mentioned above. Perhaps those extraordinary qualities found in his poetry come
from his comfort in his life as a poet. For me palm embodies poetry as a way of
life that is as natural as the emotions of love and anger. The ideas in this
collection of hay[na]ku are complete and elegant. Love, friendship, social and
ethical justice, travel, food, beer and companionship, are but a few
examples.
who
are you?
who am i?
who is that
person behind
you?
How many
personalities does it take to hold a self together? palm provides no single
answer. How could he? Rather palm is a Taoist of a kind where simplicity
neither means simple or easy. palm writes poetry naturally and with little
artifice. Or if there is artifice in his poetry it is so subtle that it seems
as natural as the snowfall in winter on the streets of his native Sweden.
Or perhaps
all that I’ve said of palm’s poetry reflects my own reading of it. Poetry
cannot exist without a writer and a reader. But for sure these qualities I find
in palm’s poetry are there for those readers who seek them out. I said lars
palm is a friend and he is. He also looms large in my own personal pantheon of
poets who are doing the better writing of our young century. I cannot say
whether his, or any poets, poetry will survive the ages. Who the hell knows
what the future holds. That is not our task as readers and writers. Our task is
to write to the best of our abilities and read with honesty and tremendous
pleasure. This book of hay[na]ku satisfies all my needs as a reader. This dude
has all I want in poetry, in an English that I shall call punk music. I am
grateful to the world for producing the poet and poetry lars palm.
*****
richard lopez reads writes and loves in northern california. his
last book was a split chap with jonathan hayes, hallucinating
california. his next book might be called pretty in pink.
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