Pierre Soter

Sonnets from Copenhagen Pierre Soter

"Invisible as the shape of music is

and noisy as a rocky frozen ground,

some badly wanted things I never found,

perhaps they were not real, not as this."

in sonnet "Ash Tree", page 21



"And while the day is very young, undawning,

there are morning breezes yawning.

All can freely dream around these waters."

in "Sørtedams Sø", page 73



Pierre Sotér started writing poetry inspired by Copenhagen and this is his tribute to the city. "Sonnets from Copenhagen" is an emotional book that interacts with the soul, the nature, the life and the beauty of the city. The book is illustrated with photos from Viktor Tegner, which help discovering some of the fascinating sides of Copenhagen.

"Sonnets form Copenhagen" is built on two main pillars: 33 poems, 32 of which are sonnets, and 52 photos. But it includes many informative texts and philosophical reflections too:

"Beyond poetry, one of the most attractive aspects of Copenhagen is the constant challenging of conventional ideas and prevailing wisdom, and the search for new ways to exist. The existentialist seeds, sown by Søren Kierkegaard, are alive and strong, as the city experiments and invents, surprises and sometimes provokes. It cultivates a spirit of informal ceremony without losing its identity, historically rooted traditions and respect for its own symbols and values."

"... Copenhagen is also a place that has given the world ideas and solutions which will remain engraved in stone and live well into the future. Here, rational thought and scientific research, led by Niels Bohr, confirmed and explained what Democritus had suspected twenty-five centuries ago: the Universe is a construction made of all possible associations amongst indivisible elementary particles which combine and recombine eternally in the void. And in the same way that in classic antiquity one can distinguish between the humanistic Socratic period and the metaphysical time of Democritus, history repeated in modern times and the leap was led by Søren Kierkegaard from Copenhagen. It was a new humanistic leap - a gigantic one. In an overwhelming and fascinating way, Kierkegaard managed to awake the sense that we don't exist because of what we are. Instead, we can and should choose what we are because we exist."