Utopias, Part IX
By Heidi Komulainen


Down with all state power!
Scatter it among the people,
    Distribute it to the townships,
Build with love
    for tomorrow’s generation.

Into the soil of the earth
    The seeds to sprout
The trees to spread their branches.

The birds in these branches
    to strike up their harmonies.

Down with earth-moving tractors
    and prisons,
All of this dark nation’s
    mental hospitals!

People to laugh again,
    To sing their own songs,
To grip their hands and toes,
    To hear their own sobbing.
To wet the earth with their tears,
    To nourish and to cherish,
To love and make love,
    To lay a good foundation.


Published in its original Finnish in Heidi Komulainen’s blog column in the online newspaper Kansan Uutiset on Jan. 1, 2010.
English translation by Harry Siitonen, Berkeley, CA, Jan. 12, 2010.


Who is Heidi Komulainen?


    Heidi Komulainen, 26, is a graduate student living in Kuopio, Finland, where she is studying for a masters degree at the University of Kuopio. She has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Stockholm. A native of Jarna, Sweden, she has lived in both Finland and Sweden. Single, she is a member of Finland’s Left Alliance Party, which she represents on the Kuopio City Council. She is also active in the Left Alliance women’s and youth organizations.
     Heidi describes herself as a “petite and otherwise meticulous woman. The hippie lifestyle, feminism, and socialism melt the heart in discussing them.”