I like the this poem very much Mike but think it ends a bit too sudden for
me and would like it see more. Bw Sally J
>From: Mike Horwood <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: new sub: On reading Väinö Linna
>Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 19:10:21 +0200
>
>The Finnish novelist, Väinö Linna (1920-1992), wrote historical novels in
>the realist tradition. His best-known works are the trilogy, Under The
>North Star, which describes events in Finland from the 1880s to 1950s and
>how these affect the lives of a group of characters in a village in the
>south of the country, and The Unknown Soldier, which describes the
>experiences of a machine gun company during the Continuation War of 1944
>against Russia.
>
>
>On Reading Väinö Linna
>
>Dusty roads disappear between trees.
>Fields yellow under the sun
>where the scythe´s blade once swung
>from Nordic dawn till sundown.
>
>The illumination of each tree, the mower´s
>unsteady foot on the threshold,
>light cast on each door jamb, range
>and outhouse, the retreat of snow
>
>across the courtyard in spring;
>yes, we have stumbled among
>these very things, clumsy
>as a horse that hauls logs through bog.
>
>Boulders stand beside ditches
>with the clarity of sunlight
>catching birch leaves and the weight
>of words cut into stone.
>
>There are days when wind crashes
>through branches and the lake
>is the colour of lead when we take
>water for washing, but the land is at peace.
>
>The wooden walls of the crofter´s cottage
>have greyed with age. These beams
>have settled and seem permanent now.
>
>
>
>
>
>Mike
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