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Anselm Hollo

Anselm Hollo internationally known poet and translator, was born in Helsinki, Finland and was educated there and in the U.S. He has been recognized asa major foce in the poetry community, both in the U.S. where he has lived since 1966,

and around the world. He is now Associate Professor in the Graduate Writing and Poetics Department at The Naropa Institute, a Buddhist-inspired nonsectarian liberal arts college in Boulder, Colorado, where he and his wife, the painter Jane Dalrymple-Hollo, make their home.

Hollo's most recent books include Caws and Causeries (1999), a collection of essays, and Rue Wilson Monday (La Alameda, 2000) and Notes on the Possibilities and Attractions of Existence (Coffee House Press, 2001), both collections of poetry. In addition to the more than forty books he's written, Hollo is an award-winning translator. He has translated writings from German, Swedish, French and Finnish, including works by Jean Genet, Paul Klee, Bertolt Brecht, Blaise Cendrars, and Paavo Haavikko, Finland's most reknowned poet.

From
Guests of Space

For Janey, with French idioms

Anselm Hollo

wind gusts changes sky from blue to white
above carpet of crabapples under the tree
flickers flicker through air

tremendous lightning strike two nights ago
gave me the flesh of the hen for half a second
then water poured from the sky

      — no I'm not turning into a "nature poet"
but the little green house you built for me
does make me notice a few more things in the universe
to add to my "Notes on the Possibilities and Attractions of Existence"
      and I never imagined I could be so unjealous
of my loved one's art
      even when it takes her away from me
for many evenings and mornings and nights inbetween
but o I make myself a joy of it
            to see her again

"the flesh of the hen" — "la chair de poule" — goose pimples
"make myself a joy of it" — "se faire une joie de" — to look forward with pleasure

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