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.