After I made my first few vispos in 2006, I saw an article in Valo, a supplement of the Finnish daily newspaper, Aamulehti, and the ideas from the article remained in my mind. I had already, for quite some time, wanted to do something other than just write plaintext poems, so I went looking to find additional information about “nurous” which was the term for the visual poetry in the article.
The Re(a)d Yarn
Narrative in the visual poetry of Satu Kaikkonen
Satu Kaikkonen is a prolific and protean poet from Finland. She writes that “I'm a storymaker and this is seen in the narrative aspects of my vispos. Each series is like [one] continuing poem and the individual vispos are its verses.”
In this commentary, I’d like to focus on two ‘verses’ from her Grey and Yellow Series: “Sisters” and “A Grandmother.”
The images are two vignettes or mises-en-scène. Chekovian tableaux in abstract space. A subdued grey background. A chair or two. One chair remains in the identical place. One is added or removed.