Pauliina Haasjoki

poet

At the Saari Residence, I will be putting the finishing touches to my poetry book Planeetta (”planet”) due to be published next spring. While I am here, I will do my best to give it a continuous and flowing overall rhythm that will allow the reader to keep up with the wandering thought processes that slowly piece together.

These thought processes came to touch upon the idea that planet Earth was not created for us but rather we are born into its circumstances. All life is tailored to accord to the planet’s gravity, temperatures, surface shapes, water and air cycles. The journey from a planet favourable for sustaining life to the state of civilization as it is today has been very complicated but it is very difficult to imagine an alternative. What kinds of fantasies do we have of what is happening? As a cognisant species, we have achieved a moment in which we are aware of the planet as a limited entity. We are beginning to understand the cognisance of other species.

When the big picture is revealed, the love for our planet and the love for humanity falls into a terrible conflict. How do we dream without leaving our physical planet?

Two years ago, I began a collection that entailed writing essay fragments for a work entitled Tietoliikenne. In it, I try to think about space: the laboratory of thought that today manifests itself in the role of metaphysics, the enabler of planet-wide communication, the space in which we imagine all manner of threats and blessings when they touch upon us all, the whole biosphere. In its completion, the book will be a laymen’s subjective musing that advances like a poetry collection but speaks more candidly. I hope that this work also moves forward during my time at the Saari Residence.

I have written six poetry collections – most recently Hiukset (Otava, 2013) – and one poetry dialogue, one dissertation, two completed poetry blogs as well as some essays, critiques and articles for various journals. Together with Peter Mickwitz, I translated into Finnish Gunnar Björling’s poetry book Solgrönt (1933), which was published by Poesia in the spring of 2015 under the name Auringonvihreä. I am also a member of Poesia, a cooperative of poets that publishes poetry. I am also a member of Nuoren Voiman Liitto, Finland’s foremost advocate of contemporary literature. I live in Helsinki.