SINGING IN MY CHAINS LIKE THE SEA by Bengt O Björklund, reviewed by Belinda Subraman

Bengt has an amazing relationship with English and poetry. From the first time I read Bengt’s poetry I was amazed with the deft flow of rhythm and meaning. His words convey the awesomeness of seeing many perspectives at once, a knowledge that this life is all we have so dance with it, create new steps. This dance is with the mystical code of syllables and breath.  He makes the words bend, turn and twirl and transform. He creates a sort of magical, energetic realism and I often stop to take it in, savor it, and move with it too.

The opening poem is a good example:

puddles of wet word joy

shines in spite

on canvas of it all

 

there are worms
in my fight for regard 

I am hollow 

dice is my name 

crossed fingers 

and a special resilience 

dipped in ambiguity 

and a kind of loneliness 

birds respond to 

The perfect title of this book is taken from this quote:

Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea

Dylan Thomas

 Singing in my chains like the Sea is available on Amazon.

Over the last 40 years Bengt O Björklund has published six volumes in his native language Swedish: Det genombrutna fönstret, Inferi 1975; Nådsökarna, Inferi, 1978; Staden, Utposter 2003; Jag missade Woodstock, Podium 2009; Funderingar, Podium 2010; Vi drömde om en circus, FEL Forlag 2013. The two volumes published in 2009 and 2013 are autobiographical works in a poetic form. This is the first collection of his poems in English although he has been writing poetry in English for nearly 50 years since his imprisonment in an Istanbul Gaol. THis collection gathers his more recent 21st century writing.

GAS Featured Musicians & Poet: BEAT POET SOCIETY by Matthew Bowers

The Creation from Words and Music:

    In the somehow hectic, crazy year, full of surprises and change, singer Anna-Bella Munter approached Bengt O Björklund (Sweden's Beat Poet Laureate-Lifetime) to collaborate on a new musical project. 

     The idea was to create music around Bengt's poetry that would end up almost mystically bringing together elements of classic rock and alternative music. The Beat Poet Societies' debut release is as comforting and familiar, as it is fresh and alive, building a unique bridge for both seasoned and younger generations alike! A veritable musical unicorn, if you will.

     Right from it's genesis, the elements were brought together in place, and set in motion an environment, and voice, that would go on to create pure magicK. Anna-Bella has had a good career as a singer/ vocalist/ songwriter and met Bengt at one of his readings one day several years ago, whereupon they developed a friendship. Such is the beautiful world of the arts. Anna-Bella would later introduce Bengt to their soon to be guitarist, Mats Wennberg, while Bengt had known the coming keyboardist, Olof Andersson, for several years, as he was the piano teacher for his children.

     A Symphony of Alchemy:  

     

     As soon as the Beat Poet Society sits down to write, groove, or improvise songs, a sense of spiritual synchronicity fills the air. The guitar weaves a tapestry of melodic nuances, with  true classic tones that would make a youthful Keith Richards proud. A guitarist's guitar sound, etched from the fabric of the late Sixties and early Seventies when rock and roll, had a fearlessness, mission, and purpose. 

     The spontaneous jam comes to life, as the keyboards find their way alongside the melody, complimenting and counter pointing the guitar in all the right places. With a semblance of musical narrative and craft, Anna-Bella finds, and flows with a vocal foothold, committing instinctually, the most amazing phrasing of musical interpretation I've heard in a long while! Her voice ranges from wise storyteller to strong political activist, with all of the colorful melancholy siren's bliss.

     The Beat Poet Society is located in Sweden, south of Stockholm. They practice in a beautiful, warm studio, that would be any artist's dream. The cozy feel of the studio is reminiscent of a ski lodge in the alps, rather than what seems to be a working environment, it provides a safe haven of escapism and creativity.

     

Salt and Sulfur:

     The recent release is made up of five tracks. Each of the songs stand out in their own way, and on their own merit. There's Wildflowers, Serious Sisters, Fear, Salt and Sulfur, and the song that really got me hooked, There's a Song. All of the songs are masterfully recorded, wonderfully orchestrated, and perfectly performed.

     A complete album from the Beat Poet Society will drop this summer, while I must anxiously bide my time through the coming months until its arrival. The Beat Poet Society is on Spotify, where I have personally been listening to non-stop. These songs speak to me in a way that music hasn't touched me in years. Track after track, candy for your ears, and depth that nourishes your soul. Perhaps through YouTube, or another social media, The Beat Poet Society will be able to touch greater areas of the world. Collaborative artistic videos made from like minds, gathering together in purpose to reach out, and spread the world of art and music! All and All it could be a real… GAS:

You can hear The Beat Poet Society on YouTube.

Find them on Spotify too!

Bengt O Björklund's "I Missed Woodstock" (Human Error Publishing) reviewed by Belinda Subraman

Buy Here

I have just finished this impressive poetic bio written in free verse. There are many memorable phrases and poetic turns in Bengt's life and his writings. I’ve always felt a kinship with him although we’ve lived vastly different lives. My greatest adventures and experimentations came later in life. As a young man, Bengt says,” I learned to run naked/across meadows and pastures/amongst surprised cows.”  Meanwhile I was merely walking in pastures, singing Joni Mitchell and stepping in poo.

By the time Bengt was in Turkish prison over a few grams of hash and discovering the joys of learning, creating art and writing poetry, I was living in a fantasy (but healing) world of reading philosophy, history, creation with words and art, expressing myself when I could not talk. I found a safe place of wonder and possibilities. It felt like a calling. In more drastic circumstances Bengt says, ”I had long conversations/with Rabindranath Tagore/and I often woke up in Russia/in the late nineteenth century.//The Japanese slowly moved/deep into my eyes/and tales are mixed/with reality/and Dylan Thomas.//I moved through the days/like a monk in his prayers.”

With or without drugs it is beautiful to see the world open up to unlimited possibilities of learning and perception.  People get to this point in many ways and travel is nearly always an important aspect of the never ending wonder of being human.  Alas, many or most seem to keep the same set of guidelines handed them from birth and when an opportunity to expand arises they reject it and choose to remain small and call the opportunity and/or those who offered it, unwanted, not of their kin so it must be “evil.”  How wonderful to finally arrive to a place as Bengt describes. “The world vibrated/in the smallest atom/and everything was just as important/except that which obscured.//An abandoned house/at the edge of the road/offered a ghostly shadow play./Trees spoke to me/of the speed of perception/and of everything/that lies within the possibilities/of angular occurrence. ~Belinda Subraman 

Bengt's voice and art appear in GAS 2, located below.