Killing yourself with poetry
‘Twas the eve of Nýhils 2nd international poetry festival, late autumn 2006. I was the manager for the second year in a row. For some reason I can’t remember we didn’t have any microphones. The Norwegian poet, Gunnar Wærness, had misunderstood his flight-information and missed his flight. The Swedish poets Anna Hallberg and Jörgen... »
The Word is a Virus
Imagine a poem so robust and resourceful that it could survive humanity. Imagine that the Americans finally go completely bonkers and rip the globe apart with liberational glee, the nuclear dust finally settles and all that’s left of mankind is poetry. The mark of craftsmanship has always been durability. A good cabinet has a... »
Scream Readings
Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Last monday night (July 13) I performed with Paul Dutton at the Scream Literary Festival Mainstage outside in the warm but comfortable summer evening (the days here are not as comfortable). Paul and I were doing an expanded repeat of last years performance and I for one thoroughly enjoyed it despite... »
Flarf vs. Conceptualism – THE REMATCH!
As per request of Christian Bök. »
Blert, insomnia and Ida on Litlive
Not being able to fall asleep, I thought I’d jot a few words down. First of all, some time ago I came into possession of a book called Blert by canadian poet Jordan Scott. Probably through Angela Rawlings, Derek Beaulieu or Christian Bök – I’m not sure anymore, they’ve all gotten me books. Whoever... »
Höpöhöpö Böks
Höpöhöpö Böks premiered on the Icelandic State TV, January 14th, 2009. Click below for original text with a literal translation. More works in this vein can be found here. »
Inger Christensen – 1935-2009
The danish poet Inger Christensen died last friday. She was a language-oriented poet with a humanist, lyricist streak – the same streak that continues to set most language-oriented poets in Scandinavia apart from their counterparts on the American continent, or even more south in Europe (think Mette Moestrup vs. Christian Bök – Ulf Karl... »
Not a soundpoem
Christian Bök reads a poem. A poem. Not a soundpoem. Just your run-of-the-mill poetified meanings. I think I can even smell the scent of “message”! But then again, who knows, it might be methodical or apropriated, or maybe I’m not paying enough attention and he’s simply speaking in one vowel and two consonants, or... »
The importance of destroying a language (of one’s own) – full version
(The following text is an extended version of a previous text written as a mini-lecture for the seminar Alternativ publicering/litterær innovation in Biskops Arnö, Sweden, 10.-13. may, 2007 – but never read, since I was displeased with it, and decided these ideas needed much more than the 15 minutes given in Sweden. Instead I... »
You are a pipe
I One’s understanding of one’s own language is limited, one’s understanding of other languages is even more limited, and a perfect transferal of a text from one language to another is impossible simply because the languages are two different ones. “Boat” is not the same as “bátur,” which is not the same as “Boot”... »