New Poetry Collection

“The biological composition of a drop of seawater is similar to the blood in my veins” is the name of Kim Simonsen’s new poetry collection published by Verksmiðjan in 2023.

The collection is Kim Simonsen’s 5th poetry collection. He has previously published non-fiction books. His poetry is translated to many languages, most recently to Danish where he received a 5 star review in Ekstrabladet. In 2024 a translation will be published in the US.

The collection Lívfrøðiliga samansetingin í einum dropa av havvatni minnir um blóðið í mínum æðrum works with the ocean as an element. Thematically the speaker deals with his dead father, who has been a sailor his whole life and the ocean that is eating away the land, which simultaneously is our organic original home.

What is the philosophy of fish? The natural history of the three-spined stickleback? What is the human race’s position in regard to nature? Do mushrooms care for us, did the trees see us, when we were children? What stories do we tell about ourselves and those, we have lost?

In four parts the collection dissects everything that we touch and the joy of turning to the world, our skin, mites, viruses, and the whirlwind of bacteria, that is the biological foundation of every living thing.

Between worms, fish, trees and jellyfish references to biological diversity in the world are combined with literature, old philosophy, medical science and biology which is merged into a scientific and cosmic whole, where the ocean is reflected in everything, where the tiny and the mighty are united, where everything begins and ends with the ocean.

Excerpt from the collection:

This morning my father died,

he sailed his whole life

on the world’s oceans.

Now the waves are breaking

like waves have been breaking

upon waves.

In this way the waves will

embrace the shore

the land

everything

that washes

over

everything.