Carpe Diem #977 Finland

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Until now I think our Europe Ginko is a success and I hope to make it even more successful. Today we are visiting Finland, the country were one of our CDHK family members, Hamish "Managua" Gunn, lives. I am sure that he would like to have written this episode, but ... well I was a little bit late to ask him. Sorry my friend. So you have to do with my humble attempt to write about Finland.

Finland ... the land of thousand lakes as it is mentioned here in The Netherlands (and maybe in other countries also). I only know Finland from images and the stories of Hamish, but it seems a wonderful and very beautiful country.

Flag of Finland

From the late 12th century, Finland was an integral part of Sweden, a legacy reflected in the prevalence of the Swedish language and its official status. In the spirit of the notion of Adolf Ivar Arwidsson (1791–1858), "we are no-longer Swedes, we do not want to become Russians, let us therefore be Finns", the Finnish national identity started to establish. Nevertheless, in 1809 Finland was incorporated into the Russian Empire as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland.
In 1906, Finland became the second nation in the world to give the right to vote to all adult citizens and the first in the world to give full suffrage to all adult citizens. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, Finland declared itself independent. In 1918, the fledgling state was divided by civil war, with the Bolshevik-leaning "Reds" supported by the equally new Soviet Union, fighting the "Whites", supported by the German Empire. After a brief attempt to establish a kingdom, the country became a republic. During World War II, the Soviet Union sought repeatedly to occupy Finland, with Finland losing parts of Karelia, Salla and Kuusamo, Petsamo and some islands, but retaining independence. Finland joined the United Nations in 1955 and established an official policy of neutrality. The Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 gave the Soviet Union some leverage in Finnish domestic politics during the Cold War era. It joined the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1969, the NATO Partnership for Peace on 1994, the European Union in 1995, the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council on 1997 and finally the Eurozone at its inception in 1999.

Let us take a look at the beauty of Finland with its awesome forests and lakes.

Northern Lights above Finland

treat of Mother Earth
coloring the skies
Aurora Borealis
a palette of colors
treat of Mother Earth

© Chèvrefeuille

I am always 'flabbergasted' as I see images of the Northern Light ... it's such a wonderful play of nature really awesome, must be great to see that once in a lifetime for real ...

As I stated earlier in this post in The Netherlands Finland is known as the land of thousand lakes and I just had to include an image of one of those (more) than thousand lakes in Finland.

Nuuksio National Park, Vihti, Finland

clouds connect
reflecting in the lake
with Mother Earth

© Chèvrefeuille

And what to think of the beauty of the Finnish forests? As I read Hamish's tumblr than the forests of Finland are really beautiful and a place to become peaceful filled with the almighty power of the forests ... awesome.

forests of Finland

in my forest
falling in love again -
the silence deepens

© Chèvrefeuille

Wow! What a beautiful country ... God's Garden of Eden ... must be Finland.

As I do in every episode of our Europe Ginko I love to share haiku by Finnish haiku poets, must be an easy task ... as Hamish is one of our family members, but I love to share haiku from another haiku poet / ess from Finland.

I found a wonderful series of haiku by Anselm Hollo (1934-2013). Let me tell you first a little bit about him (source: Here)

Anselm Hollo (1934-2013)

Anselm Hollo was born on April 12, 1934, in Helsinki, Finland. He wrote more than thirty books, including the essay collection Caws & Causeries and Notes on the Possibilities and Attractions of Existence: New and Selected Poems 1965-2000 , which recieved the San Francisco Poetry Center's Book Award for 2001.

His work has been widely anthologized and translated into Finnish, French, German, Swedish, and
Hungarian. His translation of Pentii Saarikoski’s Trilogy received the 2004 Harold Morton Landon
Translation Awardfrom the Academy of American Poets. He was a recipient of a National
Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, two grants from The Fund for Poetry, and the
Government of Finland’s Distinguished Foreign Translator’s Award.

A native of Helsinki, Finland, he lived in the United States since 1967, teaching poetics and
translation at colleges and universities. He was a professor of Writing and Poetics at Naropa
University in Boulder, Colorado, where he lived with his wife, visual artist Jane Dalrymple-Hollo.

Anselm Hollo died on January 29, 2013, at the age of seventy-eight.

brown photo legend

“serene enjoyment” they suck

pipes bones crumbled back

night train whistles stars

over a nation under

mad temporal czars

switch them to sleep now

the flying foxes swarm out

great it’s flurry time

wind rain you and me

went looking for a new house

o the grass grows loud

© Anselm Hollo

Nature of Finland

And I found another Finnish haiku poet as I was surfing blogspot while doing research for this episode. His name is Tikkis and here are a few haiku by him. Visit him at: Tikkis
 

old friend of mine ...
yearly income tax
papers

our old sun

after vernal equinox
migrating back

frozen river …
thick ice
moving nowhere

© Juhani Tikkanen (a.k.a. Tikkis)

Well I hope I have inspired you all to create new haiku or tanka. Have fun!

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until June 20th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, Greece, later on.