Our second issue of 2021 brings you suspense video poetry, a feisty poetry essay and a proverb generator for adults.

This issue opens with an interactive version of Sana päivässä (One Word A Day), a procedural project by poet Reetta Pekkanen. She wrote the poems one word per day and the process is visible in the interactive version where reader can reveal the poems word by word. The piece is coded by Teemu T. Tuovinen. Pekkanen’s project also materializes in analogue form in the booklet Salakuljetuksia, published later this summer in the Poesiavihkot series.

The Finnish field of audio and sound poetry is active and diverse. One excellent example of collaboration between musician and poet is Mementomoriappelsiini, an audio poetry piece by poet Kaija Rantakari and musician Lauri Wuolio. The track is based on Rantakari’s poems published earlier this year in the book Salit (Poesia).

During the time of variying degrees of Covid-19 lockdown Kati-Annika Ansas created a piece of suspense video poetry taking into inspection our normative views of a romantic relationship. Ansas’s Ei kiitos (No, thank you) can be viewed as critical towards normative ideals or as an expression of frustration of existing expectations in a relationship. Ansas is currently also working in di.ki, a major collaboration project promoting digital literature.

Our essay in this issue presents a feisty and well argumented critique against the sloppy reception of contemporary experimental poetry in Finland. Miikka Laihinen is a literary critic and PhD candidate at the University of Turku. He thoroughly analyses the ways in which the conception of contemporary poetry as difficult and hard to approach is built in the culture sections of Finnish newspapers. He introduces new strategies on how to build a relationship to contemporary poetry utilizing several key concepts of French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. One of the central poetry books he focuses on is Valohuppu from 2012 by Juri Joensuu.

Ruosteisia luonnoksia/Rusty Sketches (Enostone, 2019) is a poetry/visual art book by Muhaned Durubi. Durubi moved to Finland from Irak and his book addresses themes of war and immigration, and poetry as a way to view the world. The selection now published in Nokturno includes poems in three languages, in Finnish, in English and in Arabic. Poems bend towards aphorisms and the black and white images illustrate experiences from journeys the poet has made and insights he has gained.

Vanhan kansan uudet viisaudet (New Wisdoms of the Old Folk) provides unfiltered folk culture in new form. It’s based on a collection of Finnish proverbs from 1930s gathered and maintained by Institute for the Languages of Finland. Teemu T. Tuovinen has created a generator that composes new proverbs based on old ones. Since the generator is based on uncensored material and the old proverbs are at times a tad explicit, scroller discretion is advised!

Laura Tressel’s video poem Majakka (Light House) embodies the slow and fragmented movement of people reaching towards one another, isolated amidst the pandemic. An important symbolic element in the poem is radio, one of the oldest communication devices still in use, and often crucial in difficult to access environments.

I; pietist compositions, after Marko is a series of minimalist visual poems by French visual poet Rachel Defay-Liautard. First part of the series, inspired by Pietist Compositions by Marko Niemi was published 12 years ago under the pseudonym alice liddion. Second and third part, now released for the first time with afterword by Márton Koppány are dedicated to Marko Niemi who Defay-Liautard had also collaborated with.

Our Poet-in-Digital-Residence Mariana Marangoni will be working throughout the Summer. You can read more about her project Overflowing Gardens of Decay here. You can also dive into the project, addressing questions of internet infrastructure and digital decay by following her residence diary.

Our next issue will be coming out in September. Before that we’ll be collaborating with Nuoren Voiman Liitto at the Poetry Moon festival for a whole night of digital literature on 19th of August! You can read more here.

ps. Submissions are welcome around the year!

(image: screen capture from Mementomoriappelsiini by Kaija Rantakari and Lauri Wuolio)