Shearsman 57: Erling Friis-Baastad

Shearsman 57

Erling Friis-Baastad

Relevance

i.m. Peter Huchel

Now it begins, the gift
poets believed they'd relish,
announced at night
by hungry dogs
down unlit streets.

Now it ends, the old debate
on origins for lyric verse.
No instruments. Voice frozen.
The soloist suspended
in a web of state.

Erling Friis-Baastad lives in Whitehorse, Canada, where he works as a copy editor at the Yukon News. He is also regional editor for the Anchorage-based circumpolar poetry magazine Ice-Floe. His most recent collection of poems, The Exile House, was published by Salmon Publishing in Ireland in 2001.