Joyce Akesson

 

 

Joyce Akesson is the author of two books of foreign linguistics, "Arabic Morphology and Phonology based on the Marah" and "Ahmad b. Ali b. Masud on Arabic Morphology, Part One: The Strong Verb" and several articles about Arabic morphology and phonology. She is also the author of a book of poems "Love's Thrilling Dimensions" and has some of her poems selected in an Anthology in the UK.

 

"What a wonderful book of poetry to touch the heart, deepen the spirit, and stir up the emotions! Joyce Akesson, gifted poet and extraordinaire, puts into words not many have the talent to achieve. Her writing is clear, profound, and creative, while at the same time poignant. ... If you are a lover of poetry, I highly suggest you check out "Love's Thrilling Dimensions" by Joyce Akesson. I can guarantee you will be totally immersed into a world of its' own."  Irene Watson for Reader Views

Synopsis: The poems in Love's Thrilling Dimensions are written to stir the heart and soul. They seek to search for a connection between memory, thoughts, feelings, sensory experience and reality. They explore such universal themes as the longing for love, the awakening of wonder, the magic of encounters, the uniqueness of journeys, the ambiguity of a few existential questions and the different changes that can occur in the inner and outer landscapes. The readers witness mostly the alchemy, power and triumph of love in a transforming and spiritual journey of discovery and are invited to contemplate its significance in their own lives.

 

PageOneLit.com: Where did you grow up and was reading and writing a part of your life? Who were your earliest influences and why?

Joyce Akesson: I was born and grew up in Beirut, Lebanon. There were always a lot of books around the house. My mother, who is Norwegian, loved reading, singing and reciting poems, and I think that she was my earliest influence.

My late father who had a travel agency, loved metaphysics and philosophy and instilled in me a love for these subjects.

I went to a Jesuit School named les Saints Coeurs, and was immersed in the ba-sics of reading and writing. I used to enjoy mostly literature and philosophy classes.
We used to memorize poems and write dissertations about different topics al-most every week. The first poem, which left an impression on me, was Victor Hugo's: Demain à l'aube ("Tomorrow, at Daybreak"). I was deeply moved that so few lines could express so many deep thoughts and feelings.
Other poems were those by Browning, Byron, Baudelaire and Verlaine. I was an impressionable teenager and wrote poems at this time too.

I left the country when I was seventeen and moved to Sweden when I was nine-teen. In between, I lived in Jordan and Vienna. Reading and writing have always played a big importance in my life.
I went to the university during many years in Lund, a university town in the South of Sweden, where I studied the Semitic languages, got a degree and worked as a lecturer during ten years. Before writing and publishing the present book of poetry, I got two books and several articles published in the subject of Arabic linguistics.

 

PageOneLit.com: In your new book, Love's Thrilling Dimensions -The poems are written to "to search for a connection between memory, thoughts, feelings, sensory experience and reality." Explain.

Joyce Akesson: My book is about relations, more particularly about love relations, but not only about that. I believe that in whatever relation one is having, the past plays an important role. A person is programmed genetically and through his/her up-bringing to experience certain patterns. So the past is connected with the present.
Furthermore, in many of my poems I like to move from an inner reality, which can be a place that does not exist or suddenly exists in my mind, the past, the future, a sublimated reality, another dimension, a labyrinth, a parallel world, a meditative or dreamy state, or from an outer reality, which is a real setting that makes me ponder over the state of the world or over my own situation, to other zones, then off to a connection, whether emotional or physical or both, with a loved one.
Not in this particular order, but I have tried to connect all these different dimen-sions or worlds together in my poems.
 

PageOneLit.com: What is it about poetry you enjoy? Do you feel poems offer more freedom of expression than lets say a fictional novel? Explain.

Joyce Akesson: Poetry captures an emotional experience in a special language. I enjoy it when it is a spiritual adventure and a mystical experience. I see it as a window opening on a specific time and place or as a mirror reflecting one's face or many faces or both. I like it too when it can be a provocation.
Whether reading or writing poems, I like the kind of poems that makes me think and associate continuously by offering open worlds, images, metaphors and thoughts. In this manner, they initiate a communication, a sort of inner dialogue, and also an inner process that makes me develop my own thoughts.
A fictional novel usually follows the conventions of plot and character.
Poetry is known to cross boundaries and is therefore unconventional and free.
It can present a fresh perspective and a new way of looking at an issue. It can also offer different interpretations to a matter through its abstract images.
I see it as an invitation to go inside and outside and to reconstruct oneself and one's reality.




PageOneLit.com: Who is your favorite poet?

Joyce Akesson: I do not have one favorite poet. I like many poets very much like Billy Collins, Kenneth Koch, Louise Gluck, Octavio Paz, Pablo Neruda, David Wevill, Ted Hughes, Auden and the French surrealists like Paul Eluard and Henry Michaux.
 

PageOneLit.com: In Love's Thrilling Dimensions your subject matter is very universal, thoughts, feelings, sensory experience and reality - Did I leave any-thing out?

Joyce Akesson: You got it somehow covered. I wanted to base my poems on universal themes that are particular to love in all its different dimensions.

Every person's experiences in a particular relationship are subjective and unique, and it is this uniqueness that can be recognized by others as being uni-versal. The more authentic a writer's thoughts are and the more universal they become for others to understand and to identify with.

I have also taken up themes relating to metaphysics, existentialism, reincarna-tion, the birth and expansion of the universe, planets ruling our lives, the four elements, the concept of parallel words, the interconnection between events, the principle of causes and effects and the struggle with opposing forces, such as war and other calamities, just to name a few. I like to believe in auspicious signs, in a meaning with our lives, and in love in all its forms as being a driving and healing force in this journey.

PageOneLit.com: Do you have a personal favorite poem in Love's Thrilling Di-mensions?

Joyce Akesson: I like many. My favorite just now is the poem "It's a Parallel World".

It goes like this:

It's a parallel world.
It's a gothic forest.
It's a bluish valley.
It's a deep gorge.

It's a déjà vu.
It's a sleeping town.
It's an old neighborhood.
It's a familiar house.

You go up the stairs of your future.
You discover the source of your past.
Your present is hidden behind a secret door.
Your space is reflected in the windows.

You find a chess game in the attic.
The formula of your happiness is decrypted.
A voice whispers your name:
you recreate your identity.

PageOneLit.com: What did you learn from writing Love's Thrilling Dimen-sions?

Joyce Akesson: I learnt how to tell a few untold stories, to develop a few themes revolving around the subject of love's thrilling dimensions and to do some experimenta-tion with images and thoughts in order to find a connection with myself, with the others and with the universe.

PageOneLit.com: What's next?

Joyce Akesson: A new book of poetry and one about linguistics.

PageOneLit.com: What was the last book you read?

Joyce Akesson: Eat, pray, love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

PageOneLit.com: Do you have any hobbies? What are they? How do they en-hance your writing?

Joyce Akesson: Spending time with the family, talking with a few artistic friends, visiting a good restaurant, seeing a good film, reading a good book, writing and doing some re-search work.
Ideas can just spring out from anywhere.