Reviews of The King’s Coin, 2020
Read Ray Zimmerman’s recent review of The King’s Coin in the Chattanooga Pulse
In The King’s Coin, Bille’s graceful, vivid poems work a kind of magic, putting the poet’s Danish memories and songs into eloquent English while capturing the ephemeral but undeniable cost of emigration and adaptation to a new cultural context. As a poetic autobiography, it is both poignant and thought-provoking. What are the sounds and smells and fleeting sights that shape our sense of self? This collection makes a sensually and emotionally rich contribution to the literature of hyphenated identity that should resonate with readers far beyond the borders of both the remembered Denmark and America he so skillfully evokes.
– Julie K. Allen. Danish but Not Lutheran; editor,The Bridge: Journal of the Danish American Heritage Society
The “[s]alt of ancestors disturbs my tongue” (“Time Spiral”) Finn Bille shares with readers in his new collection The King’s Coin. Reminiscing a lifetime of experiences both as native son and as immigrant, Bille explores the discovery of his past and present selves divided between the Old World and the New: “I taste the names in Danish / on the tongue that travels here” (“On a Beach”). The King’s Coin provides historical and personal commentary to aid the reader in her sense of place and family ties; these poems meander among nature and past events, travel and poetry, balancing between observation and invention. And it all began with “A man … plowing the kingdom / where the ice came” (“Seed”): a reminder of the important choices we make in harvesting the memories we let go and those we keep.
– KB Ballentine, The Light Tears Loose and Almost Everything, Almost Nothing
The King’s Coin digtene er gennemsyret af ’røddernes’ betydning i en fysisk og mental transitionsproces mellem gammelt og nyt. Det ene sprogbillede forbindes med et andet og skaber verdener, der mødes og adskilles for til sidst af forenes i én fælles forståelse. Narrativet trækker i dig og løfter dig med på rejsen i et rigt fabulerende formsprog, hvor du tager digtene i besiddelse, ligesom digteren tager sit nye land i besiddelse.
{Translation: The King’s Coin poems are saturated with the significance of roots in a process of transition between old and new. One image blends with another, creating worlds that merge and part to finally unite in a common vision. The narrative pulls you and lifts you into the journey in ridhly fabulating poetic forms, compelling your embrace of the poems in the same way the poet adopts his new country.} (Translation by Finn Bille)
– Peer Louis Aarestrup. Kanas land, Asfaltblomstens duft, Diamantpigen