Poems by Kristian Guttesen

​WAR
I

You think something becomes true
by saying it three times
that in poems your words become more poetic
by addressing someone in the second tense
that you manage to rewrite history, to change
memories, by showing someone
the letters as if they empower you and give weight
to the words –
you sink into a swamp, find the next refuge
and another and another –
all the words you spit out
pulling loops from the depths of the soul and mobbing
floors on the side, for black money of course because
such are the works of darkness –
you think god does not exist
except for when you are suffering
that no one is their brother’s keeper
and that the children will shelter you
that the pagan gods and various monsters will defend
you and the black dog (…by the way, does
he still play poker?)


 
II


You dream of breaking the glass ceiling
you say you wear a glass helmet
that your words are as beautiful as your silence –
love is war
all relationships are warfare
one party always defeats the other
sometimes an explosion will occur
sometimes a peace agreement is reached
but peace only belongs to a time of peace
under the terms of war –
all the words we know but do not use
are chemical weapons
in war one must sacrifice oneself for the cause
justifiable self-sacrifice is a mindset, not the end –
now, many years later
I walk the empty streets of the city
which is still unrecognizable after the bombing
every other house is in ruins
while the ones in between have been rebuilt and stretch
themselves majestically towards the sky (…there are birds
on the pond which are reflected in the surface of the water)

 

 
​Kristian Guttesen was born on May 29th, 1974, in Denmark, where he grew up until he moved to Iceland at the age of eleven. Guttesen‘s first book of poetry, Afturgöngur (Ghosts), was published in 1995 and many more have followed, the most recent being Röntgensól (X-Ray Sun) in 2020. He was nominated for the Icelandic Translator‘s Prize in 2007 for his translation of the novel The Hill by Carl Frode Tiller. In 2018, Spoon|Forks, a collection of his selected works in English translation was published by Deus, and in 2019, Spoon|Forks, 2nd Ed., an extended volume was published by the same publishing house. 

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