Janne Karlsson (Editor) LOVE’S AN INFECTION (2014) 24 pages

Janne Karlsson’s A5 fanzine-style chap LOVE’S AN INFECTION is a short collection of illustrated poems on the theme of Love & Hurt and features seventeen poems & eight poets from around the world. Over the last couple of years, the Swedish artist & editor has collaborated with several, mainly North American poets, who he has developed a huge respect and admiration for. When Karlsson gained access to a cheap printer earlier this year, he decided to take a shot at creating his own print poetry anthology and invited his network of poets to contribute. LOVE’S AN INFECTION is the result of this collaboration.

The poems are minimalistic & view love from a wide variety of perspectives. The poetry is experimental and remarkably fresh. There is nothing predictable or mundane here: Blood spouts in raw spasms across the page. Bruised wailing mouths pulse like a “heartbeat of fists.”

As implied by the title LOVE’S AN INFECTION, love is seen as a disease which makes people do & say crazy things. As shown in the poems, love can induce vomiting, self-loathing, evoke intense hatred and acerbate irreconcilable differences & misunderstandings between people.

(Reprinted with the publisher's permission) 

I recently asked Karlsson for BM (23 October 2014) the thoughts he had when he sat down to create an illustration for a poem. He candidly commented: “I don’t really think or prepare in any way. I read the poem and pretty much draw intuitively, trying to kind of turn the poem’s feelings into ink. There’s hardly ever anything going through my mind. If I began using my brain in my drawings, the result would surely suck. Suck hard…ha ha.”

(Reprinted with the publisher's permission)

Karlsson’s illustrations are character driven and express a raw, surreal existential anxiety which adeptly reflects the sick, fucked-up agony of modern living. His graphics? Think mad shit. Think raining blood, Zombie nudity, eyeless vomiting figures drenched in blood. Think even of cannibalistic metre-square blocks of ready-to-be-eaten breasts & vulvas. Weird but thought-provoking stuff!

Order the book for $3 US plus shipping from Sweden here: jan-karlsson@hotmail.com

Visit Janne Karlssons web page: http://www.svenskapache.se/

Book Recommendation: Henry Denander The Loulaki Bar & other poems from Hydra. Miskwabik Press, Calumet, Michigan, 2009 (68 pages).

I have read most of Denander’s poetry and this is probably my favourite collection because it combines his poetry with his beautiful watercolour sketches. The Swedish writer and painter lives in Stockholm but has spent the last dozen or so summers on the Greek Island of Hydra.

The title poem ‘The Loulaki Bar’ recalls an incident in 1988 when Leonard Cohen was in the small Hydra bar sitting with his girlfriend at the next table.

The poetry is largely anecdotal and centred on Denander’s every day experiences on the island: obtaining a post office box with the help of a friend, his wife’s fascination with insecticides, his reflections on Greek priests & on a sleeping man while waiting to catch a ferry in Hydra, how his neighbour Barba Yannis helps him with his garden, how his family is befriending the neighbouring cats, his dealings with the local tradesmen, his thoughts on retirement and the like. The writing is simple, minimalistic, self-deprecatory & creates a vibrant sense of what it is like for Denander to live with his family & friends within the Hydra community.

In the Foreword, the great American poet Gerald Locklin presciently writes, “I now consider any product of his creativity in any form to qualify as an instant collector’s item. In terms of The Loulaki Bar this is certain as the collection appears to be now out of print.

Resources:

Comments on Henry Denander’s site: http://www.henrydenander.com/The_Loulaki_Bar

Poet Hound includes the poems ‘Cipporo’, ‘The Flood’ and ‘Basic Philosophy’ from the collection here: http://poethound.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/henry-denanders-loulaki-bar.html

The poem ‘Medicine’ appeared in Dyehard Press here: http://dyehard-press.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/loulaki-bar-and-other-poems-from-hydra.html