a different kind of soil

While lying in the sun outside the fisherman’s hut on Björkskär, with my bare toes running through the grass, I read a book of poems by the Swedish poet Athena Farrokhzad, “Vitsvit”. A year ago, I saw a play based on that same book of poems, and wrote about it on the blog. It is a thought-provoking poem about the immigrant’s experience from a diverse set of perspectives, and I liked it even better as a book.

And I don’t know, maybe it’s the physical geographer in me, all the years of studying soil and landslides and plant succession, but I really fell for this image:

[An attempt at a translation:]

My brother said: All the seeds that got the verdict

to fall in this earth and never sprout and bloom

It is for them that the earth shall crack

~ * ~

Poetry. Art. If done right, so much more powerful than any statistics or science. We’ve got to join forces if we’re going to get anywhere with this world in turmoil.