JOANNA SVENSSON

 

Dead Per “Deathinition”

 

Imagine – just a simple game of Chess

And then just all of a sudden

Death itself lays straightened out

Unable to move a limb no more

Surprised having died itself

Being played Check Mate

By life itself

Who concurred death by skill

The two once met on a stony beach

Just like in a movie

Only this was for real

And certainly nothing to laugh about

Imagine death – lying on Lit de Parade

Out concurred by life itself

In a simple game of Chess.

So here lies death perplexed

All dead per definition

So peaceful and quiet

And actually confused

That a move so life changing

Could appear so easy and so fast!

 

Don’t Cry For Me

 

I found myself standing

In a graveyard – one late day of September

I felt the strongest, strangest presence

Of all of them who no longer

In this world existed

My senses made my body halt

Right in front of a decorated grave

It was cut in darkest granite

With golden engravings

Telling names and dates

Of all who should be resting here

Underneath this huge and heavy boulder

But with letters so huge and so golden

They tell me so pure and so simple:

“Don’t cry, ‘cause I’m not here.

Don’t cry, ‘cause I am not here!”

That’s when I saw

The spirit of light

Shining through the autumn dressed trees

That’s when I heard

That haze voice whisper:

-“Don’t cry for me, ‘cause I’m really not here!

Don’t cry, I’m really not here!”

Life is (just) an energy

And it can just and only

Be conveyed into another energy

Me, myself, has just been converted

To a guardian angel

For my younger brother!

 

The Servant Of Darkness

 

I have met the servant of darkness

It addressed me with its saddest face

It told me not to be sad

-I’ll take care of those you once did love

Because darkness  is just a coincidence

Just a blink of an eye in the Universe

Passed that comes great, great light

Passed that comes peacefulness

All without pain

All without sorrows

All without material things

And no different currency

My face is not so sad

For those I will guide towards the light

My face is sad and depressed

For all those hypocrites

Who stand beside your grave

Sobbing and pretending

Badly acting – feeling sick

Pledging their love and faithfulness

Beating their chests

Sobbing crocodile tears

But behind others backs

They have stolen the star of life

Its hope, its trust and its love

In the mean time they have filled

All of their space and all of their hideaways

With all the gold and money

With all earthly belongings

Sending but a pawn letter to the devil

Boldly standing as the only witness at the morgue saying:

-I’m at peace, ‘cause now at least I know

-Now at least I know you’re dead!

For those, the servant of darkness says:

I have no mercy.

For those I will never guide towards the light!

 

 

JOANNA SVENSSON

 

JOANNA SVENSSON is a swedish poet, writer and novelist.  She has been writing and publishing her works ever since her early teens.  As a poet she has at present eight books of poetry of which The Seven Colors of my Life is published in the USA (in English) in 2019 and De sju färgerna i mitt liv in Sweden (in Swedish) in 2020 and its Arabic version published in Sweden in June 2021. Czas Bez Dat; published in Polish in 2019. Longing (Sehnsucht) is a poetry collection in two parts (in German) published 2007 and 2008. As a writer she has published two large fiction novels The Secret of the Medallion and The Key to Heaven in a trilogy. The third one On the other Side of the Door is ready for publishing in 2022. Beside a new poetry collection Beyond the Tears of Rain, two other projects are in progress at the moment: A collection of 10 short stories Behind the Green Curtain, and a childrens-book, illustrated by her husband Per Josefsson, who is a professional translator, graphic designer and illustrator.   Fluid in three languages, she writes in Swedish, German and Polish. Her husband translates all of her work to english. She is a member of the Sveriges Författarförbund, Författarcentrum Syd  and The Society of Polish Writers abroad. Has participated in several anthologies over the years and achieved many acknowledgements for her prose and poetry. Her books are available at Svenska Akademibokhandeln, at BOKUS and at the Royal Library in Stockholm and several other libraries in Sweden and Poland. In 2019 she was awarded 1:st prize at the Bucharest International Festival of  Literature for her first novel. “The Secret of the Medallion” which is now being translated into English. She is also very active in both Swedish and Polish literary society and she participates in several international prose- and poetry festivals around the world.