Kit Kelen
from “at Ålvik”
the weather has come
after only a season
the weather is back
there’s a mood now
I think it’s the weather
the day has lost an hour and more
hours vanish if you think of them
here’s the whole blond town
procession with wheelchair too
out for the weather and with it and in
the man with the pipe is raking his leaves
he’s a little factory – wind has his whiff away
one window open and the weather’s in
can’t chase it out like summer’s fly
of course the weather’s how we’re here
light a lamp and wait for snow
turf over our heads and huddled with oven
we dreamt everything up for the weather
crawl under the covers – it’s gone
and over the weather
all up above
there are the stars for everlasting
there’s the deep round blue
every bird here sings of the weather
what else is there to say?
The most recent of Kit Kelen’s dozen English language poetry books is Scavengers Season, published by Puncher and Wattman in 2014. “Day thirty-five: Under the weather” is a draft from a series of poems for a planned volume, The Forest is the Poor Man’s Coat, composed during residencies at Kunstnahuset Messen, in Norway, in 2014 and 2015.