Karsten thought a lot about growth, making something flourish and
creating the proper growing conditions both physically and mentally. His
thoughts reflected on healing when something needed to be fixed.
This is a memoir and it is therefore suitable to use these two verbs
“have cultivated” and “have cared for” in the present perfect tense, which
expresses a past event but has a present aspect. The Faroese title “Grógvið og
grøtt” also has alliteration, which the author’s generation was fond of.
Karsten’s poetry is charged with creative imagination that has both the
soul and nature singing within each other. He constantly seeks this
lyrical power and wants to get closer to nature. Like so many other poets,
nature is a platform for existential thinking. But in few other writers is
there such a strong relation between art and the perception of life, images and
thought as there is in Karsten Hoydal’s work.
The images Karsten creates from nature are bursting with contrast-filled
redemptions. The struggle between the opposites bears fruit and ends in song,
but this simultaneously an acknowledgement of that which cannot be
changed and a celebration of life as it is.