Tuesday poem #447 : Andrew DuBois : Ill-Rendered Lines from Icelandic

 

 

 

Thereof I battle some sore pressing sorrow
Blinded by heartr’d deflowered old sins
Mortgaged our cottage my fortune all torn 

Pins affixed augur to grey-vines a thru-skull
Visitors petted are long offered lead
Better so vetted get sack-lunches hearty 

All seem mere horrid at best a berserker
Little prostrators do lop off all anger
Some variation in starkness or hog 

Vomiting rag-muffin visits lore-sorrow
Better I err all days stigma a-bed
Honey burnt brown a miscarriage of light 

Rended-hung thought in a heather a-flying
Hedging blood-letting for landing make bier.

 

 

 

A cento-sonnet:
Jón Jóhannesson, “Þar Í Byggð”
Jón úr Vör, “Hérna Í Stofunni Minni”
Þóra Jónsdóttir, “Sárið Sem Aldrei Grær”
Matthías Johannessen, “Hann’amma”
Steinn Steinarr, “Í Áfanga”
Helga Steinvör Baldvinsdóttir (Undína), “Heimurinn”
Davið Stefánsson, “Fjallalíf”
Steingerður Guðmundsdóttir, “Vor á Íslandi”
Þhoroddur Guðmundsson, “Guðmundur Arason”
Stephan G. Stephansson, “Illugadrápa”
Bjarni Thorarensen, “Herhvöt”
Unnur Benediktsdóttir (Hulda), “Eins og úr Blómabikar”
Bólu-Hjálmars, “Kveðið Í Þungri Legu”
Bólu-Hjálmars, “Vertíðarlok”

 

 

Andrew DuBois is the author of a book of poetry (All the People Are Pregnant, 2021), a collection of essays and reviews (Start to Figure, 2020), a lyrical novella (He We Her / I Am White, 2019), and a book of criticism (Ashbery’s Forms of Attention, 2006). He also co-edited The Anthology of Rap (2010) and Close Reading: The Reader (2003). A professor of English at the University of Toronto, he splits his time between the GTA and Carbonear, Newfoundland, where he is owner of the Green Door Book Store. 

The Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan