Anne
Hänninen
Born 7 February, 1958, in Rautalampi.
Five collections of poetry. Freelance
writer and teacher.
'I grew up in Central Finland, in the countryside, with my
grandparents. Nature is precious to me, and its significance for
me has become wider: it is a timeless, eternal power, the core. A
well of responses, endless variations, symbols. I cherish this
world, this lost world, I build it anew: this sense of freedom,
union, understanding, existence.
I think that the language of poetry comes closest to what life
is. Ordinary language is limited: you cannot speak poetry. My
poems are born in different ways. For instance: there is a
racking conflict, an unruly tendency to wonder, to question, to
doubt, to dig, to suffer. Or: there is an overwhelming enthusiasm,
wild flow of words, inspiration, a lit-up joy. Or: there is a
completely emptied feeling, a vacuum, a wordless, embarrassed,
aimless state. And suddenly something new and unexpected
begins to flow into it. Sometimes, a sensation of the divine, of
beauty, of meaning in the midst of fear and chaos. And I try to
find words that might be even a little equal to the nuances of
existence, of uniqueness, of fluidity. And on no account imitation,
repetition .
But how difficult it is to blow the spirit into words. To try to
capture something immaterial with words. To try to arrest a
vague fluctuation, to become conscious.
One can try to create a world through poems; through the
magic of words, of creation songs, of incantations. To tame what
is strange. I also want to make documents through words, like in
photographs, in paintings. Everything that has been forgotten. I
am trying to write myself free, from darkness to clarity, to
understanding.
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