Poet Ingela Strandberg, 81, discussed death and love in an interview. Her poetry collection 'Under sjöarna' sold out after its release in January and is now in its third printing. According to the Swedish Publishers' Association's top 100 list of best-selling books for January, Strandberg was the only poet on the list, ranking 57th.
In the interview, Strandberg said she thinks about death every day and is not afraid of dying but is afraid of farewells. She also said love as an obsession is quite similar to the fear of death and that it is not harmless to love. Strandberg described her poetry as very symbolic yet concrete, with a bus shelter near her home playing a special role in her poems.
I think about death every day and am not afraid of dying but am afraid of farewells.
She said she often goes there at night to see the stars and planets and wonders who is there when she is not. One morning, she found the bus shelter smashed and felt uplifted, saying she had sometimes thought of doing it herself and that there must have been a wild rage behind it. She plans to continue writing about the bus shelter, which she finds mysterious and magical.
Love as an obsession is quite similar to the fear of death and it is not harmless to love.
I often go there at night to see the stars and planets and wonder who is there when I am not.
I found the bus shelter smashed and felt uplifted, saying I had sometimes thought of doing it myself and that there must have been a wild rage behind it.