The Night Train to Rovaniemi Taught Me to Stop Checking the Time
Twelve hours north from Helsinki in a tiny cabin, with reindeer on the tracks and nowhere to be until morning.
Ilkka Virtanen
@ilkka.virtanenGeography teacher from Tampere who rides slow trains north and writes short poems about lakes and ice.
6 articles597 clapsJoined Apr 12
Articles
Three Days on a Finnish Archipelago Island With No Shop and One Sauna
How a tiny rocky island in the Turku archipelago made me plan my food, count my water and finally sleep.
What the Ice Says in March: A Poem About Waiting
Late winter in Tampere, when the lake ice starts to sing and groan, and nobody is quite sure yet whether it is safe.
Midsummer in a Cabin Without Electricity Is the Only Holiday I Need
Every June I go back to the same lakeside cabin in central Finland, and every year the nightless night does the same quiet work on me.
Sauna, Then the Lake: A Poem in Four Breaths
A short poem about heat, cold, and silence, written for an English friend who asked me what Finns actually think about in there.
A Poem for the Last Ferry of the Season
Every October the little lake ferry near my parents’ village makes its final crossing, and I always try to be on it.
