BOOK REVIEW
“The pain is soft compared to the numbness.”
‘The Moon’ is a poetry collection by K.Tolnoe that illuminates the phases of the human experience in all its lightness and darkness. It’s the first book in the four-part ‘The Northern Collection’ series.
Written and illustrated by K.Tolnoe, the moon guides readers through a journey that is both familiar and unknown. The poems tell stories of loss, love, grief, struggle, transformation, and most of all, hope. Just as the moon orbits earth, the moon poetry book revolves around its reader, their resilience, their healing, and their growth. ‘The Moon’ will always be there when you need her most. All you have to do is turn the page.
Opening with a validating poem when feeling lost, the book engages the reader from the get-go. Explaining we cannot control anything except from ourselves for ownership is an illusion, a fake comfort, our thoughts are powerful.
There’s a feel of cynical storytelling present with a deeper meaning than what’s displayed. Realising one's language is their own when trying to explain themselves and to pick the right words, the just about 100-page read is fantastic.
There’s a sense the other person mentioned is halfway out the door yet isn’t confident to make a permanent decision to stay or to go than stringing someone else along. Penning the curse of a writer is that we adopt everyone’s feelings, let them live in our skin, the mind breaks and the heartaches, as if we were never enough.
Some pieces are pick-me-ups with encouraging content, while others are hard truths. Touching on mental health writing, “mental illness is such a tragedy because you lose your loved ones long before they’ve gone,” is a touching piece that many will resonate with.
There’s many thought provoking pieces when reading every word that embraces emotion while resonating in places with the reader. There’s a sense of hope when reading, “I’ll keep one blank page in case you come back,” as they hold their breath yet know they should give up hope and set it free from their mind and watch it go but the torness keeps them where they are.
As there’s no titles or chapters, it was somewhat hard to follow, but felt like a never ending story told through poetry. There’s a great flow and rhythm, “I spent years with words as my only friends, now I’m writing them to comfort someone else,” in-turn will resonate with many. Including a letter to herself on page 103, and one to her readers on page 108, this journey is almost like a rediscovering of oneself while documenting the heartache and growth along the way.
Kamilla Tolnø - better known as K.Tolnoe – is a Danish writer and poet. She is known for her way to express complex emotions with simple words and minimalistic drawings. In 2017, she started sharing her art on social media and has since gained a large, loyal following from all over the world. Her characteristic minimalistic style and sharp imagery has also caught attention from world renowned celebrities such as Ariana Grande, Khloe Kardashian and Gigi Hadid. Kamilla lives in a studio in Copenhagen and studies part-time on CBS. Besides writing, she spends her time reading, doing yoga and drinking coffee with friends. She also enjoys traveling and exploring the world with her favorite destinations being California, Australia and Indonesia.
Words by Danielle Holian
INTERVIEW
Tell us a bit about your writing background.
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. For the first many years of my life, I wrote in my mother language which is Danish, and I focused mainly on novel drafts and short stories. In 2014, I participated in a short story competition at my local library and won a self-published book deal. In 2017, I published a short story collection in danish, named “Brudstykker”, which translates to fragments. I started my Instagram account around the same time, originally with the purpose of promoting this book. However,upon entering the online writing community combined with a current heartbreak of mine, I felt increasingly drawn towards English poetry. The aforementioned book sold around 60 copies, mainly to friends and family. But since then, I’ve self-published four poetry collections that have sold more than 10,000 copies worldwide.
What, or who, inspired you to start writing?
I think there has always been an urge in me to write. It feels more like a need than a passion or a hobby. I’ve been inspired by many writers before me, since I spent most of my childhood reading any book I could get my hands on. My writings are inspired by a lot of different things though. Places, people, moods. Music inspires me a lot, especially in the sort of alternative genre where the lyrics play a vital role in understanding the messages. Lana del Rey has always been and will always be one of my greatest inspirations in the way she combines musical atmospheres with her extraordinary poetry.
And what influenced your poetry series 'The Northern Collection'?
Again, the influences come from anywhere and everywhere. I am a very sensitive being and I take a lot from my surroundings. A lot of the things I write about are not necessarily something that has happened to me personally, but something that I’ve picked up along the way from other people, books, or the like. I was lucky to grow up at my parents’ house right outside of Copenhagen, Denmark, in very scenic surroundings. I’ve always felt deeply connected to nature and have been inspired by the changes, the seasons, the animals. This is something that has deeply influenced the northern collection, which is also evident in the titles and cover images of the books as well as many of the illustrations inside of them.
Where did the idea come from?
The idea originally came from me growing up in the north, specifically Scandinavia. I once heard a story about how, if you open a compass, the arrow points to the magnetic north pole and not the geographical north pole. In that way, there is no “shortcut” method of getting to the true north. And I thought this to be an interesting metaphor for how we as people tend to listen so much to society and to each other’s opinions - the compass arrows - that we forget to listen to ourselves. And that many of us are led to a place where we don’t truly belong in the fear of getting lost. The series is divided into four parts, each representing a step on this journey towards one’s true north. Its main idea is to help the reader stay true to themselves, to let go of their past and embrace their inner power.
And how do you find the balance between writing about your own personal experience and exploring topics that may not necessarily be autobiographical, but still speak to many people?
It’s a hard balance to obtain. On one hand, I think it’s important to stay true to oneself and one’s feelings to stay authentic. People often write to me with requests, like “write about being in love” or “write about losing a child”. And while I would love to, I have a hard time putting imagined situations into words and I do feel like you could tell from my writing if I had to force it. On the other hand, as I mentioned before, I am a sensitive and emphatic human being that often takes on other’s pains and heartaches unwillingly, and that often finds it was in my writing. One thing about writing for as many people online as I do, is that we are more similar than we think. Even when I write a piece that feels so personal and specific, people still reach out to me saying how they feel the same thing. In my experience, we are not that different, even when people come from different countries, share different religions etc. It’s all about daring to speak openly about what hurts - because more people understand and relate than what you may think.
What makes a piece of your writing right to post on your Instagram, versus the ones that stay in the book?
I think what separates the pieces from my books from the one I post online is that they’re more complex and use metaphors that one must think through to truly comprehend. The thing about social media is that people’s attention span is short and therefore, it works best to keep things simple on social media such as Instagram. It’s also a deliberate choice from my side not to share every page online, since I want those who purchase the books to be surprised and to keep some of the content exclusive. The pieces I post on Instagram therefore work more as teasers. I also post a lot of pieces on Instagram that are not included in any of the books, either because they’re written later or because they did not fit in.
And finally, what advice would you give to aspiring writers?
My primary advice is: Keep going. Writing is not an easy field and there’s a lot of poets, writers, authors etc. out there. But this does not mean that your voice is irrelevant; on the contrary, it is needed. As long as you help just one person out there, it is worth it. But sometimes it takes time to connect with that one person. For example, I found that most people in my home country don’t care much for my writing style. But after I started sharing my writing online, I found my audience, just in a different place than I originally thought. In the same way, one may have to go through a lot of trial and error and experimenting with different platforms and styles to find the right place. But once you do, it will be well worth it.