Sirpa Kyyrönen is a highly decorated Finnish lyricist, known for her powerful voice, which is grounded in physical experience.
Poems
Sirpa Kyyrönen: Winter Sleep. Big Dipper. 122 pages.
In an era marked by environmental shifts, even subtle weather changes can seem like harbingers of impending catastrophe to an unsettled mind. Yet as satirist Joseph Heller and singer Kurt Cobain have expressed, even if you’re paranoid, you might still be under threat. In our times, even regular weather patterns are associated with climate change.
Disasters are inevitable, and literature has the capacity to pre-emptively consider them. It’s possible to see the decline of nature in something as small as a deceased wasp. Literary dystopias offer various scenarios, from endless winters to perpetual summers. Sirpa Kyyrönen’s fifth collection of poems, “Talviunia,” is the first work I’ve encountered that combines both scenarios with authority.
Occasionally we are stuck in an endless January, covered in snow, while other times we find ourselves in the height of summer. Kyyrönen doesn’t portray these scenarios from an external perspective, but rather from within the body.
Reading Kyyrönen’s work, one gets the impression of being on the cusp of language and deeply-felt experiences. Even when the poems delve into shamanistic transformations, they feel authentic: “my body is / an ancient wolf if an ancient wolf/ turns its side, the fells tear and the ancient freezes / and the ancient freezes.”
Through repetition, Kyyrönen explores both personal history and natural history. Kyyrönen is one of the most recognized contemporary poets. His previous books “Aerial roots” and “My name is Marjatta” have won major poetry awards. He might be one of the few poets who will be remembered in our time.
The potential longevity of Kyyrönen’s work is due to his distinctive style and unique worldview. His work combines elements of Kaleva’s spells, scientific observations of nature, and the challenges of modern parenting without contradiction.
Despite Kyyrönen’s attempts at overwriting, everything he writes remains uniquely his own. His work expands on the themes of his previous books, making “Talviunia” a great recommendation for those who enjoyed his earlier works. The book includes all the elements of his previous works, but in a more daring and expansive format.
The book is organized into twelve sections, like a calendar year. The content is abundant and it’s advisable to read one or two sections at a time, taking breaks in between. The book explores the cycle of the year, inspiring readers to re-read it, much like the cycle of a lived year.
“Talviunia” deals with its titular theme through various bear metaphors, but it also explores the concept of a winterless world and insomnia. It covers everything between earth and sky, which can now only be grasped poetically. The book’s most resonant theme may be an eternal, foggy November – a time so devoid of features that only a poem can illuminate it.
