Frayed Opus for Strings & Wind Instruments

The English translation of new work from a celebrated Danish poet.

Frayed Opus for Strings & Wind Instruments is a collection of poems that zooms in and out of places and states of mind, from a lit bicycle shed in the back yard to a root canal in November, from a typhoon in Hong Kong to instincts astray in various Copenhagen neigbourhoods. Elegantly translated by Canadian collaborators Per Brask and Patrick Friesen, these dreamlike poems attempt, with honesty and humour, to fathom what it is to inhabit a specifically unspecific point in life―not to mention in the Universe.

"In my pocket I have
the photo of the house, I have to stop continually, put
the suitcases down, take the photo from my pocket
and compare the house in the photo with the houses
we pass. In this way seventeen years go by."
―from Frayed Opus for Strings & Wind Instruments

Praise for the work of Ulrikka S. Gernes:

"airy and abstract, like pinching smoke...risky and intriguing."―The Antigonish Review

Ulrikka S. Gernesis the author of eleven collections of poetry and two books for children, as well as many short stories, songs, and various contributions to literary anthologies, art catalogues, magazines and newspapers. Her work has been highly acclaimed in Denmark since the publication of her first collection Natsvaermer (Moth) in 1984 when she was 18. In 2001 A Sudden Sky: Selected Poems, translated into English by Per Brask and Patrick Friesen, was published by Brick Books.