ART & POETRY
A selection of poetry and visual work -
tracing memory, identity and the
subconscious across text, image and live performance.
Body Bags (2020)
Art thou still a child
Bearing witness
To body bags
Told to think
Told to stop
Life is short
La vie la morte
Sweet stores shut
Daunting daytime deliveries
Art thou still a child
Installation view featuring works from the Subconscious Art & Poetry Collection at the Den at Politics & Prose, Washington, DC.
FROM THE EXHIBIT
Shown across a series of exhibitions at The Den at Politics & Prose in Washington, DC, the Subconscious Art & Poetry Collection brought together poetry, photography, and installation. Works included participatory elements such as The Locker, which invited visitors to leave written traces of their own, as well as an interactive doll house installation that invited children and other visitors into a moment of play and imagination while waiting at the café. One exhibition also featured a collaboration with Belgian doll artist Dollbelge, whose handmade dolls brought warmth and playfulness to the space.
Installation view featuring Retreat of the Rich and
Not Today from the Subconscious Art & Poetry Collection
SELECTED POEMS
Grey
From "To All That Remains: Poetry and Photography 2017-2021"
Enchanted by the storm
like a wolf in the forest of his
Able to unlove you
But to retrieve that part of my heart
impossible
no ones’ fault
imaginary wine
Not able to add sun
And the sky of mine
already gray
We can no longer
play with the ocean
Divine richness
Dreamed up castle
in the kingdom of ours
Deprived of peace
the sleep of a winter bear’s
Losing (to lose) irreversibly
Returning (to return) irreversibly
Perhaps You
Perhaps I
we defrost the ocean
It had with ice begun
embracing our souls
Like a desert with hope of an oasis
We were yearning
Long ago
How come the wolf still howls
How come still
the storm charms me
And how come our grey sky
does not
unsettle me
Half Not Whole
Excerpt from the poem "Half Not Whole",
from the forthcoming anthology A Testimony.
This poem was later adapted into the song Ur Bad For Me.
Strange city
DC
Yet hellbent
on making my acquaintance
If the dress sweeping
serenading siren
was swept away
from underneath my feet
on such a whim
Then who am I
without him
I left my heart
and wish it back
half not whole
New Pastures
From the forthcoming anthology A Testimony
New pastures
Not necessarily greener
New pastures
Unfamiliar at best
For a rootless soul like this
New pastures
Where to
Where to now
If you managed the pastures of the past
Could it be that trying now
Where to now
IN SWEDISH
A small selection of poems in Swedish, including published newspaper pieces and work later collected in To All That Remains: Poetry and Photography 2017–2021 (2022).
Äpplena i år
From To All That Remains: Poetry and Photography 2017–2021 (2022). Also published as Veckans dikt in Mitt i Södermalm.
Du lämnade mig
Ett träd
Som brustna löften
Faller de för tidigt
Äpplena i år
Smärtan vid dolda dunsen
Den ena sidan sagolikt sann
Man vänder och vrider
Försöker förblinda fulheten
På andra sidan
Äpplena i år
Livet är en frukt
Och vi delar på den
Den och allt och ingenting
Som du sade innan tiden stannade till
Hur många kilon skall jag behöva bära
Nu när solsommaren fått träden förära?
Jag vill dela dela
Sortera surhetsgrader
Men inte lillan
Lillan lägger lekfullt
Linjer likt Lego
“Ni vuxna tänker ju bara på vikten”
Skrattar saligt och säger sött
“Nu gör vi paj och mos innan det dött!”
Av falnad frukt
Från trädet du lämnade mig
Men lillan säger att de nog aldrig blivit
Finare än så
Äpplena i år
På t-banan i Allhelgona
Published in Mitt i Söderort (2023).
På tunnelbanan
Möter min blick
En liten kerub
Som gurglar i vagnen sin
Men jag
Bär blommor till någon
Som fattas mig
Glamorös glasögonprydd
gamling
Läser lagom stor
Säkert alltför cool
Kaffebordsbok
Men jag
Hör musiken
Som inte längre spelas
Nästa station
Ropas ut
Den där jag aldrig mer
Kommer att gå av vid
Godis-eller-bus-utklädd
kuf
Med utmattad far som är
så rar
Medan jag
Minns den jag nu inte har
Med stillhet i sinnet
Ler jag smått och tänker
Att tunnelbanan är
Som livet är i stort
Framåt fast med minnen
Vid nästan varje station
Bara en dag per kalenderår
Känns den särskilt svår
Denna Alla helgons dag
Som varje år brukade
vara vår
FORTHCOMING
A Testimony - a forthcoming poetry anthology including Not Today, Learned To Track, Half Not Whole, New Pastures, along with other new work.
ANTHOLOGY
To All That Remains: Poetry and Photography 2017-2021 (2022)
A multilingual collection bringing together poetry and photography across memory, loss, identity, and survival.
View anthology on Amazon