Arja
Tiainen
Born on 19 October, 1947, in Seinäjoki,
Ostrobothnia. Nine volumes of poetr,v,
two prose works, columns, criticism.
'I experience myself strongly as a thinker; or rather: an
anti-thinker, an almost-thinker. Although I am poet of a small
country, there are no boundaries in the realm of poetry. Soul
travels Most often, my mind is occupied with role games, old
myths, the woman's obstacles and the laws of the male world. In
my own country I am regarded as a violent, even an aggressive
poet, but that is a superficial view. Many stories of my poems
reflect fundamentally quite romantic situations; besides, the
hero of my love poems is almost always male. I'm only defending
freedom of speech and expression, always and everywhere. I
loathe everything small and petty. I draw the lines of my poems
with a metallic hand. Perhaps I am a fighter, a fighter for art.
Yes, my education is nil. I come from a large family of war
immigrants who could not educate all their children. Besides, I
was, and still am, word-blind: that was catastrophic at school.
Now I train basenjis. I am divorced and have one child. And I do
not feel bound to any time or place. I have a strong feeling of
solidarity with the lyrical poetry of the entire world.'
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