Hanna Rajs' "Klamra" deepens grief through Kabbalistic poetry

Hanna Rajs' new poetry collection "Klamra" continues her grief work following her mother's death, drawing on Kabbalistic ideas of devekut, or clinging to God. The poems express rage and despair directed at unclear recipients, exploring the impossibility of grieving "correctly." The collection follows Rajs' August Prize-nominated "Samma, mamma," written shortly after her mother's death from cancer. Years later, the grief has deepened and become more violent, with the poet's voice shifting between analytical adult and inconsolable child. Mirrors and the repeated word "OCH" (AND) symbolize the intertwined yet separated states of death and life. In the final section, the typography expands and language becomes more playful and abstract, suggesting a tentative opening. The dybbuk, a Jewish mythological dead soul clinging to the living, recurs as a metaphor for grief itself that must run its course. Amanda Svensson reviewed the collection for Expressen.