> Hello Matt,
Thanks for your feedback. Yep, I´ve got to look at several aspects of this one.
Best wishes, Mike
>
> Hi Mike,
> I liked this, but as Gary has said I did struggle a bit with the tenses.
> Making it clear that the poem involves a switch of points of view is always
> difficult and sadly I've got no good ideas as to how best to do so.
> I liked the stanza
> "Boulders stand beside ditches
> with the clarity of sunlight
> catching birch leaves and the weight
> of words cut into stone"
> Regards,
> Matt
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Pennine Poetry Works [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
> Of Mike Horwood
> Sent: 16 November 2004 17:10
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: new sub: On reading Väinö Linna
>
>
> 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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