DUENE

I’d promised myself not to reference any more dead men when I came across a passage in Mary Carruther’s «Book of Memory» (1990) where Plato compares memory to a pigeon coot. He called it peristereon. As children our coots are empty, and as we grow older it fills up with pigeons. The pigeons represent pieces of knowledge. I wrote two verses after:

Klippedua er den ville formoren til brevduene

Brevduene er de tamme formødrene til byduene

Og byduene er brevduenes forvillede barn

Minnene mine er de ville mødrene til det jeg vet

Det jeg vet er den tamme moren til drømmene mine 

Og drømmene mine er det jeg vets forvillede barn

Today the sky is blue. I forget why it’s blue, though I know I learned it once.

Miriam Myrstad (b. 1989) is an artist and poet. She studied at Bergen Academy of Art and Design (BFA) and Oslo National Academy of the Arts (MFA). Her most recent solo exhibition was “Moral” at Palmera, Bergen (2019). She is also the author of the poetry booklet “Vi kommer i fred” (2011, Flamme forlag)

The exhibition is supported by Arts Council Norway.