Sisu is Finnish for Tenacity
The poet’s Collected Butterflies
displayed behind glass in the Nobelmuseet
volume after volume sprung open
the powdered alphabet of patterned wings
and in the case nearby
the famous letters to another poet
like thoughts for new poems
that waffle from view while rubbing a wife’s back
and the other poet’s less famous replies
tapping against the transparency, fluttering
fingers figuring out a jumbled score . . .
It really is an unbearable correspondence.