Mette Moestrup
Butterfly Nebula (not translated into English) is a work of poetry that has justifiably garnered a huge amount of attention for its original combination of ecocriticism, critique of capitalism, and female angst about the state of the world. The author describes herself as an “ecstatic systems poet” and places herself, both aesthetically and intellectually, in a congenial continuation of Inger Christensen and her sonnet crown Sommerfugledalen (1991).
Butterfly Nebula is a sumptuous, broadly conceived poetic composition which, through the form of the butterfly, stretches from the interior of the body to outer space. The connection arises from the fact that, some 3,800 light-years away, there is a nebula that resembles the thyroid gland in appearance – the small, vital gland that deteriorates in cases of Hashimoto’s disease (named after the Japanese doctor who first described this autoimmune syndrome). Mette Moestrup makes this connection.
On a personal and bodily level, the work therefore revolves around human metabolism. But since capitalism’s constant predatory exploitation of Earth’s resources threatens to devastate humanity’s metabolising of matter with its surroundings, the poet leads the reader into an all-encompassing care for life. Added to this is the poetic point that metabolism is almost the same word as metabole, a rhetorical figure in which the same words are repeated in reverse order. For Moestrup, it is only a short step from ecocriticism’s insistent focus on matter to poetry’s engagement with the materiality of language.
Butterfly Nebula is constructed in seven interwoven strands. “Red Butterfly Ufo” is the declarative opening and closing poem. “Red, butterfly-shaped poem” is a kind of poetic happening with instructions for placing red objects in the shape of a butterfly. “Seven letters to Hashimoto” addresses the Japanese doctor who discovered and described the disease that for seven years deprived the poet of the ability to write. “Quiz on the butterfly gland” actually consists of a series of questions, which are answered at the end of the book. “The Habitat Hymn” celebrates the dune landscape the poet has moved through since childhood. “Songs of Insomnia, Copenhagen” circles, in elegiac incantation, around what it means to be alive when a close friend is dying. And finally, the poet articulates a series of prose-form “Blood Prophecies”. The seven textual strands can be followed separately, or the book can be read exactly as it presents itself, in constant shifts from one strand to another.
Either way, the reader encounters a wild and exceptional beauty, while gradually gaining a clearer understanding that everything which metabolises matter is alive, and that everything that is alive metabolises matter.
Moestrup was born in 1969, made her literary debut in 1999, and has published six poetry collections, one novel, and two children’s books. She has also contributed to several collective publishing projects. Something that all her literary works share is their experimental character and her energetic engagement with politics and poetry.