Olli Heikkonen

When I read Olli Heikkonen, I knew I had to feature him. He's a Finnish poet, born 1965, and his poems at PoetryInternational here are incredible. All his work is great, but I want to highlight "Sink your fingers..." here, which has a spare, Scandinavian style like the Finnish epic the Kalevala, info here and you can read it here.

Here's an excerpt from "Sink your fingers...":

Sink your fingers into the darkness of my fur, Upota sormet minun turkkini pimeyteen,for I am the crowned light of the forest.      sillä minä olen metsän kruunattu valo.My crown are the roots [...]                              Minun kruununi on juurakko

From "I come through..." here I loved:
[...]
My cry is colder than other cries.                         on muita huutoja kylmempi.
It freezes lakes and locks stones                           Se jäätää järvet ja kiristää kivet

on shores like teeth.                                                   rannoille kuin hampaat.

It crushes berries and peels the rowan trees.     Se murskaa marjat ja kuorii pihlajat.
It holds still the forest. [...]                                     Se jähmettää metsän.

Here's a Kalevala excerpt:

[...] Wicked Hisi heard these measures,
  Juntas listened to their echoes;
  Straightway Hisi called the wild-moose,
  Juutas fashioned soon a reindeer,
  And the head was made of punk-wood,
  Horns of naked willow branches,
  Feet were furnished by the rushes,
  And the legs, by reeds aquatic,
  Veins were made of withered grasses,
  Eyes, from daisies of the meadows,
  Ears were formed of water-flowers,
  And the skin of tawny fir-bark, [...]