The Writing Artist- Karen Blixen

Today starts my second week of celebrating writing artists for National Poetry Month. My pick for today is Karen Blixen. Karen was a Danish author and painter who also wrote under the pen name Isak Dinesen, Tania Blixen, Osceola and Pierre Andrézel. She is most known for her books Out of Africa and Babette’s Feast. Out of Africa was inspired by her poem Ex Africa which was eventually turned into a feature film.  The paintings above were studies she created while attending the Academy of Art. They are on view at the Karen Blixen Museum, which the writer’s former home located in Copenhagen. I could not find the original Ex Africa poem so I have included and excerpt from her book Out of Africa that is written in poetic style.

"If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?"

-        Karen Blixen (excerpt from Out of Africa)

-        Nia Andino -