Arvida Svenske is participating in the International Literary Creation Competition, 7th Edition, from Stockholm, Sweden and is 34 years old. We thank her for her participation and wish her success.

Churchill paints the pond (again)

Old Winston Churchill, amateur painter at 80
paints the same pond over and over again
says he couldn’t catch the reflections
The glimmer of the fishes eluded him
but what eluded him was something else.
but when asked to elaborate
he spoke of the sorrowful
year when that pond was diked out
the year when they’d settled there
was the year after Marigold
the daughter they lost to sepsis
at the unfathomably tender age
of two lived years on this sad earth.

He never stopped painting the pond. The light of it eluded him.
And isn’t that what art is for?
to make your attempts at defining your sorrow
Even disco inferno (with it’s burn baby burn)
means I learn through suffering.

Is that sad news?
is that bad news?
or is it

Nothing but good news
There is a frog in South America
Whose venom is a cure
For all the suffering
That mankind must endure
More powerful than morphine
And soothing as the rain
A frog in South America
Has the antidote for pain
That’s the way it’s always been
And that’s the way I like it
–Paul Simon

It’s never too late to define		        And isn’t that what life is for?
or redefine or bring to life 		        to make your attempts at
new versions of what you see		defining your sorrows and your joys	
the world will still linger on 		        whatever this means to you:
but you will leave a life-size void 	never stop trying to paint the pond.
of everything that was ever you.	promise to never cease to try.


In the lair of the lynx (on Midsummer’s Eve)

on being a poet

There is a celebration
over in the neighboring hamlet
but in this cool, clear, shady
grove of a cave
there’s stalactites and stalagmites
moss and lichen and old words linger
enough carrion to munch upon
an almost perpetual sun
through a thin veil which makes it look like 
nothing but the pale moonlight.

In the murderous 1800’s
the lynx were all but extinct
a hundred or so remained
and they were made sacred and protected
these facts are true
of the Swedish lynx lynx lynx
and modern poets.

Stina Ekblad, the Swedish-speaking
Finnish actress has a great sentence
which I have taken to my heart
in every open mic and literary seminar
you’re way off, you totally tuned into it	existence itself appears and sometimes:

I feel like a colporteur far out in a narrow margin. I am a revivalist of poetry, an aged cultural ambassador, an antediluvian ancient relic, a strange satellite, in a way shielded from everything that constitutes ordinary human life, yet right in the heart of it. I am amazed. At myself, and at the fact that I find it so much fun. It is not always glamorous. Yet it shimmers. Many exciting experiences await.

And this experience of being able
to live throughout a lonesome Midsummer’s Eve
with no companion to interrupt me
no friends to toast with, share my thoughts with
All I longed for when I was thirteen
All of that I betray right now
The bullied child I swore to always honor
by being the life of every party
all of those solemn diary prompts
choosing the sweet solitude
of a lynx
in a lair
content yet en garde
because tonight it might capture
through the shimmering of the unmanageable sun
conformed into fathomable moon-rays
armed with a golden sword some call the pen
other call magnet for that Great Truth which might enter
my lair through moon-rays and be discovered
with only me to look for it. Reclaim it for the rest of us.

…but in the lair of the lynx, silence reigns, in the darkness shines a grin.
–August Strindberg


The tourist’s courage (a question of solidarity)

just before the mighty Trumpland dipped
not just its crooked toes but full-body-showered
inside the cauldron of crazy they’re in right now
the American embassy
in Slovakia gave a warning:

The Department of State is aware of the increased potential for foreign terrorist organization or extremist inspired violence against LGBTQI+ persons and Bratislava PRIDE march and related events. In public statements, the Slovak Minister of the Interior has acknowledged threats made against the Pride march.

and more, the whole document
was a five minute read published
on the 18th of July 2024. And Fico’s still in charge. Not an ally, so to speak.

Will I go to Bratislava? Feel lucky? Well, do you, punk?

But I'm not on the front lines.
Just a passing tourist and can just a medium-size
piñata of goodness come out of this
Pride in Slovakia
a single person get to live as they are
get to love the way they want
isn’t that worth as much as anything?

I remember how my inner sides
made peace with each other as
I walked my first Pride, not long ago

and more recently now, in County Mayo
where Miss Panti Bliss held court
explained how she regained her glow
somewhere near the Westport bookstore
where a drag queen was going to read fairy tales
and a bunch of neo-Nazis came
who incited and mocked
in the unwarranted confident manner of bullies
said something along the lines of

“do you have the Gard’s permission
to let a fairy read fairy tales?”

Panti Bliss did not respond with Gandhian silence
but rumbled like the primal force
that is the Irish Mother of Drag(ons)

I have the Gard’s permission…

TO TELL YOU TO FUCK OFF!

I will honor that little girl by being true to myself. I will make up for all the lost time in my love life by loving as much as I can. I promise to always honor that girl of my youth, as I reach into the world, and step out as the powerful badass woman that I am.

–Jo Rittberg