The Tuesday Poem: Refeaturing Nancy Mattson — “Letter from Somewhere, 1932”

Letter from Somewhere, 1932

In the unmapped centre of the uncut forest
before we came somewhere from Uhtua
happy workers hustled up the first buildings
……………in the fourth year of a five-year plan
……………time moves so fast whatever our purposes
restaurant sauna laundry-hut bakery shop
warehouse stables office red corner to hang
faces of leaders posters photographs banners
charts to drill this alphabet into our wooden heads
prepare us to work for the common good
……………as our leaders so often remind us but
……………our plans our wishes our feet go dragging
in a pair of weeks five more buildings perhaps
we will live in new houses the scheme is a grand one
a separate room for each family if only time can be found
to prepare the making-space-between-us-walls
……………I hope they hammer fast
……………slap the muddy backside of time
21 women live here now about 100 men
more will arrive I believe in carts and wagons
I keep busy with jobs chosen only for me
……………and 20 other women life is merry
……………the weather is nicer what else to say
berries for picking with fingers and buckets
fishes for cleaning with knives and thumbs
mosses for hands to grasp from the ground
potatoes to raise from the earth with hands
……………so many joyful tasks and little duties
……………but fate will soon blow in from the north
so many berries no jars to preserve alas
this blueberry heaven in rows of glass
two wooden vats of lingonberry mash
but the rains came even snow and frost
……………our great plans to amass one thousand
……………and five hundred litres all gone awash
elokuu the life moon of ripeness has turned
to syyskuu the reason moon of cause and effect
now it’s lokakuu the moon of frozen dirt
soon it will be marraskuu we always called it
……………moon of death
……………our cold fate

First published as part of the sequence, Lisi’s Letters From Karelia, in Cardinal Points, 2011; Reproduced here with permission.

Note on Finnish words:
 elokuu - August, syyskuu - September,
 lokakuu - October, marraskuu - November, kuu - moon

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About the Poem:

Currently, I am refeaturing poems by ex-patriate Canadian poet, Nancy Mattson. The Lisi sequence forms part of Nancy’s 2012 collection, Finns and Amazons (Arrowhead), which celebrates early 20th century Russian women artists, such as Varvara Stepanova (the subject of Compasses, featured on Tuesday, May 19), who were featured in the exhibition Amazons of the Avant-Garde, eds. Bowlt & Drutt, London, Royal Academy of Arts, 1999. Many of these women towered above their age in artistic terms, but much of their work was lost, buried or overlooked until the 1990s.

The other woman who informs Finns and Amazons is Nancy’s (Great) Aunt Lisi who first emigrated from Finland to North America and later to Soviet Karelia in the 1930s; she was lost in 1939. A sequence of poems in the Finns and Amazons collection is based on letters written by Lisi to her sister Anna, who remained in Canada.

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About The Poet:

Nancy Mattson is an ex-patriate Canadian poet, now resident in London. Her third collection of poetry, Finns and Amazons, of which Compasses: A Triptych forms part, was published by Arrowhead Press, in 2012.Nancy began writing poetry in 1977 after completing her MA in English Literature at the University of Alberta. Her poetry, non-fiction and reviews have been published in Canada, the US, the UK, Ireland and Finland in magazines, anthologies, the odd scholarly journal, a printed encyclopaedia and a couple of parish newsletters.

In 1982 she edited and co-authored a history book which provided the inspiration for her first collection, Maria Breaks Her Silence (Regina: Coteau, 1989), based on the life of a 19th century Finnish woman who emigrated to Canada. This was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for best first book of poetry in Canada. Adapted for the stage as Lye Soap and Dancing Cows, it was also broadcast on CBC Radio.

Nancy’s second full collection was Writing with Mercury (Hexham: Flambard, 2006), with cover art by Elaine Kowalsky. Nancy is also one of five poets featured in the anthology, Take Five 06, edited by John Lucas (Nottingham: Shoestring, 2006). The poems in these two volumes are set in contemporary England, Canada, Finland and Italy and use memory, myth, history and family stories to create a rich linguistic and cultural texture.

Nancy was also pleased to be one of 20 writers selected by Dr. Beth L. Virtanen to appear in Finnish North American Literature in English: A Concise Anthology (Edwin Mellen Press, 2009) and her work has appeared in many other anthologies.
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