Book of the Week: Penguins/Pingviner: Haiku by Danish Poet Johannes S. H. Bjerg

Johannes Bjerg is from Denmark and writes, in both Danish and English, mainly haiku and related forms. He writes that Penguins “is a bilingual series of haiku centered around … penguins. Here penguins can be seen as metaphors or real beings either mingling with society as a whole and its mechanics or as World saviors and upholders of the spiritual welfare of the World. Because of their seemingly non-individualistic appearance they can also play the role of the unknown forces of this World.”

He is a founder and co-editor of Bones: Journal for the Short Verse, and is anthologized in New Resonance 8 (Red Moon Press). Other books in the Digital Library by Johannes are 23.45, Noah’s Egg/Noahs æg, Noah’s Eggs II, Noah’s Egg III, Parallels, Rainflames, and Room.

penguins
no human sufferings
on the agenda

pingviner
ingen menneskelige lidelser
på dagsordenen

outside the church
a show-down between
nuns and penguins

udenfor kirken
et opgør mellem
nonner og pingviner

You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library and please share your favorite poem from the book with us.

Do you have a chapbook published in 2016 or earlier that you would like featured as a Book of the Week? Contact us for details. Haiku featured in the Book of the Week Archive are selected by THF Digital Librarian Dan Campbell and are used with permission.