Ocean Avenue

by Malena Mörling, Philip Levine (Foreword by)

The poet’s sense of wonder is contagious whether she views the world from her seat on a train, from the window of her apartment, or from the streets of the city. Through a subtle, mediated surrealism, Mörling reins in the urban landscapes of New York, drawing the reader into her meditations on the temporal and the spatial, on language itself.

Genres: Poetry

75 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1999

About the author

Malena Mörling, born 1965, is a Swedish-American poet and translator. She is the author of two books of poetry, Ocean Avenue, which won the New Issues Press Poetry Prize in 1998 and Astoria, published by Pittsburgh Press in 2006. She has translated works by the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer, the Finland-Swedish poet Edith Södergran and numerous other Swedish poets as well as the American poet Philip Levine into Swedish. She was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 2007 and a Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship in 2010. She is a Research Associate at the School For Advanced Research on the Human Experience in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Mörling has received exceptional praise for both "Ocean Avenue" and "Astoria" by editors and poets. Ed Ochester, for The Best American Poetry wrote: "MALENA MÖRLING's poems are low-key, minimalist, utterly unpretentious and yet--how does she do it?--they speak about the central conditions of our lives as few poems do." Gerald Stern wrote: "Malena Mörling's passion is for observing. She sees everything--victims, suicides, lost mothers, compulsive counters, blind women in buses--with a penetrating eye. She is deeply aware of the moment of 'passing through' and it informs her poetry. "Ocean Avenue" is subtle, lovely, and original."

Mörling was born in Stockholm, Sweden 1965. She was raised in southern Sweden. She is currently Professor in the Department of Creative Writing at The University of North Carolina at Wilmington[1] and Core Faculty in The Low Residency MFA program at New England College.[2]

Reviews

[Daniel Lurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning. Everyday occurrences and observations filled with delightful nuances. This collection has changed how I view my own craft. Would highly recommend. Proof that any of our lives can be monumental, no matter how mundane.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid modern poetry. I cried at a few, but identified with much more. I enjoyed it and will revisit in the future.

[Anna Snader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every so often I ask my mentor for poetry recommendations, and I trust his judgement. This is the one he gave me to read.

I enjoyed this collection a lot because there was space for thoughts about time, memories, and life; it was very existential. These were my favorite lines, “How small the photo albums. How small the journeys / of the photo albums. How large the journeys we cannot see” (Mörling 36).

My favorite poems:
-In a motel room at dawn
-Three Daffodils
-Photo album
-Ocean Avenue
-Air

[Corin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dear doors and walls,
there are no sides
in space, there is nothing
that can separate our happiness

from suffering. Everywhere
our faces are traveling.

—Malena Mörling, “Without You There Would Be No City”

[Rhian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a genius book by my genius friend Malena.