hey, i'm lena
i'm a writer (a poet and novelist, in whichever order)
side wounds, my first poetry collection, is out now
tending, my second poetry collection, is now also available
i also track #lena's poetry archives
upcoming works include you do, of course, realise this is going to end very, very badly, a queer horror novel
i also write fanfiction
not currently active on any other socials, but for crediting purposes, here's my linktree with all my accounts and website
if you like my work and are feeling extra generous, you can buy me a coffee here or support me on patreon
FAQ
i'm a leftist dyke getting weirder about god and gender every day
in addition to writing, i'm a fifth year medstudent and a drag artist. my askbox and DMs are open, but i'm not so great at replying these days, so if you've sent me something, i've read it, i appreciate it, i will probably eventually reply, i'm not upset with you, i'm just arse at texting. really i'm just some guy who listens to the mountain goats too much
Could we maybe get a little guide to make sure we're pronouncing your name correctly in recordings? My private friend group was doing a reading challenge and we wanna make sure we get it right!
depends on the language you're speaking. in english it's /ˈleɪ.nə/ /ˌəʊ.liˈæn.dər.sən/
in a language other than english, generally phonetically consistent with the given language, but the e in lena is a long vowel & the syllabic emphasis is also on the e (the local equivalent might be spelled as léna or leena)
(as for the english one, i'm fairly sure it's the most standard pronounciation of lena, but i have heard alternates. for me, the e is more of an e than an i if that makes sense. and oleanderson is like oleander the plant and the last name anderson)
I have just read through both of your poetry collections and god I have some words but never enough of course- It's always hard to tell an artist how deeply their work has resonated with you without rambling into madness imo
But I will say your poetry has described feelings and experiences I can finally grasp at now and I am grateful for that
I'm enamored with your work for simpler reasons too, my favorite kind of writing always is about or uses the body as a metaphor or subject
That's such a watered down way of describing it but like I said forgive me despite being a writer myself words are hard especially trying to perfectly convey just how much your poetry matches the wavelengths of my mind.
Tldr; I adore your work and I thank you for the hope and inspiration and forcing some feelings into something a little more tangible.
thank you. likewise, it is sometimes rather hard for me to put to words how much words like this can mean to me
what do you use to structure your poems so that you can post them as images?
i've been using word docs. i literally just screenshot the pages. the font i use for body text is adobe garamond pro, and the titles are in canada type gibson i think. i have deliberately stuck to a very simple visual style for my poetry in recent years, in my own experience i'm more likely to read something presented in that style
I just read Bright Red Mittens, and I wanted to say how much I love the way you write about love, especially the platonic kind. No question, nothing else, just wanted to say it's beautiful
medical school is a few things. brutal, for one, and very hard to do without community as a result. weird, also. we do intimacy in reverse.
how many of your colleagues have seen your kidneys, yk? how many of your colleagues have let you poke them with needles? we do all that first, and only then might we get to emotional intimacy. like we met two weeks ago, i trust you enough to stick me with a needle, and here's a vial of my blood, let's look at my cells together, and here's my body as a practice dummy, and in 3 years maybe i'll have fit in some emotional growth in the interim enough to cry at your wedding
i have a few poems that are dedicated to or about a group of people, but to one specific person the most, and this is very much one of them - to M.
also is someone going to make the pitt edits w my med poetry or am i gonna have to take matters into my own hands
Hi Lena,
Quite a while ago I asked you if I could get a tattoo of We have enough dead friends, and you said yes! I'm still really appreciative of that. I've gotten my first tattoo since and it turns out I actually really dislike sitting for them, so I did something a little different.
In early February I decided to get an NFC implant in my hand. I don't know how much you know about tech, but it's an xNT, basically an NTAG 216 encapsulated in bio-glass and injected into my hand. It's got 888 bytes of storage on it, which is just enough to fit my favorite piece of poetry on it, unfortunately sans title. (I promise you're credited, I just have to scroll down!) Being able to change my body this way and reading your work has stirred up a lot of thoughts about bodily autonomy, medicine, queerness and the intersection of them and as a result of that, my own gender and trans-humanism. I figure I should say thank you, so, thanks <3
I don't know how well Tending is doing, but I know once I'm done writing this I'll be buying a special edition as a gift for the good friend who introduced me to your work, and very likely another for myself.
Don't forget that your work lives in many of our hearts, (and a hand now!) and please, please, don't stop writing.
Thank you again,
- Orannis
woag!! this is so cool
this is absolutely Wild to me, in a good way. honoured is the main word that comes to mind, honoured in a sort of baffled, surprised way, that anything i wrote means this much to anyone, and delight within that
thank you for sharing this with me. feeling very warm and fuzzy right now
also kitty !!
some very loosely connected thoughts on Bodies under the cut
i do resonate with the medicine-autonomy-queerness intersection heavily as well. on a personal level, mostly, but this has also led me to reflecting on my presence within other people's bodies - this is so visceral (word with negative connotations, maybe, but really not intended as such, that's just the way i'm feeling this right now, that's the best way to describe it), which is a stark contrast to how mundane it feels in the context of my day job, to be a presence in people's bodies. and how maybe that shouldn't feel so mundane to me, maybe i should reflect more on what an honour that is, how special, and how much responsibility it is to be given that kind of trust
i've been thinking a lot about bodies lately. not just in a personal context (though that of course is perpetually there, especially now that i'm on t and really leaning into my own autonomy around my body and being empowered to make my own choices around what goes on with it. and at the same time there's the things about my body that aren't just my call. legally, sure, and let's keep it that way, but i am a lot less inclined to invest in the continued care and keeping alive of my body than other members of my community. i wrestle with this, how much i owe them. it's more than nothing.)
but also Bodies, The Body. there's this line from an essay by ismatu gwendolyn (one of my absolute favourite essayists, for the record) that has been echoing in my brain, that i've been carrying into every room. "it's in your body because it is your body."
and that line, first time i read it, made me think of this line from faith by semler
which takes from 1 corinthians 12:14-26
and while i am religious, i think even for entirely secular people, realising that we are all part of the body can be meaningful. it's in your body because it is your body. that any distance between us is fabricated. another line from ismatu gwendolyn:
i have a complicated-on-a-good-day relationship with being embodied; having a presence in other people's bodies is, among other things, intimidating. i'm sitting with that feeling right now. trying to notice where and how i'm feeling it in my body
Self-Destruct Mechanism Sings a Love Song from Tending
believe it or not, this poetry collection almost ended up with two vaguely sadomasochistic poems about medical school in it, but the other one did not make the cut in the end
