Library of Water and Environs
—with gratitude to Roni Horn
By Kevin Spenst
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The remains of an extinct glacier are contained in a glass pillar in Stykkishólmur. The meltwater and debris of the Ok glacier speak through the sun. Twenty-four glass pillars each bear a glacier on the brink. Everyone has a story about the weather. The twenty-four pillars convene in a building on a promontory overlooking the Atlantic. On the rubber floor are words for the weather in Icelandic and English and on a shelf nearby is a book, The Weather Reports You. If my house is blown out to sea, it’s bound to turn upside down and sail safely, repeats one local child. There is no bad weather, only bad clothes, says a Swede who adds: or faulty constructions. The Gulf Stream imports warmth on wind stress countered by forces from the north. A boy loses his father to the clash of storms at sea. Against which no arrangement holds. Glaciers shake in weather’s tumult. Across Aðalgata, the Volcano Museum in a red barn-type structure. You can’t keep your teeth together, thinks one shivering Russian tourist. All the buildings in Stykkishólmur stand up stolid and squat from the bare ground. The Norwegian House built six generations ago from imported Norwegian wood. Today, there are four hundred glaciers in Iceland. It’s raining pocket-knives, curses a Portuguese woman with a bag on her head as she runs into the Library of Water. Inside, her mind slows at the immensity of a glacier in its unnatural habitat. The long-range forecast: in five generations Iceland shall be a misnomer.
Misreading Facebook
By Kevin Spenst
Hello, I need advice please.
My heart hasn't worked since last winter (I know that it is turned off in summer, but I’m concerned about this autumn and the next winter). I have reported the problem in person, writing and email more than 10 times. Countless people have come to check it and according to them they fix it but it does not work. Any advice you could give me? Kevin Spenst is the author of Ignite, Jabbering with Bing Bong, and Hearts Amok: a Memoir in Verse (all with Anvil Press), and over a dozen chapbooks including Pray Goodbye (the Alfred Gustav Press), Ward Notes (the serif of nottingham), Surrey Sonnets (JackPine Press), and most recently Upend (Frog Hollow Press: Dis/Ability series). He teaches, learns, and lives in Vancouver on unceded Coast Salish territory.
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