Photo by Tyko Saye
Michael Rowland remembers the Icelandic poet Ásgeir H. Ingólfsson who died earlier this year.
_______________________________________________________________________
Ásgeir H. Ingólfsson, an Icelandic poet who became my friend here in Prague, had a voice that carried a quiet warmth, always drawing listeners in. He became a steady presence in the city’s poetry scene, reading everywhere from cozy cafés to open public spaces. His arrival always promised a night of originality and connection. He encouraged those around him, not just with his words, but with his generous spirit.
Ásgeir’s poetry blended magical realism with the everyday, echoing both his Icelandic roots and his life in Prague. Nature, memory, and human connection flowed through his work, often reaching gently toward something larger.
But Ásgeir didn’t just read poems, he performed them. He brought them to life with movement and voice, using gesture and energy to hold listeners close. He would act out his lines, roar, contort, charm, until even bystanders found themselves drawn in, listening like children to a favourite bedtime story.
Still, he could land on something raw and true.
“It’s the boy who beat you up in tenth grade that taught you to write poetry,” he once wrote, a line that revealed the depth beneath his calm demeanour.
Sometimes his work seemed whimsical at first — surreal, even dreamlike — until you realised it was carrying something deeper: grief, love, joy, transformation.
“Hoverboards are in.”
Hoverboards that will rise you to the heavens,
Gliding over the railway tracks of
The Future.
We see you in the trees with God and the girl you loved at the back of the tram,
And the boy you resurrected as a he/him poet in a bikini.
Holding on to you tight…
Beyond his poetry, Ásgeir gave so much to the arts. He contributed to cultural projects in both Prague and Iceland. He wrote for radio, shared thoughts on film and music, and ran a website, culturesmuggling.com, where he explored art, culture, and the strange business of being alive. Through all this, he brought people and ideas together, quietly and thoughtfully.
Ásgeir once wrote, “Poems take place everywhere — and therefore should be read out loud everywhere.”
I promise you this, Ásgeir. I will keep reciting out loud, knowing that you’ll always be swirling somewhere around us — you glad-hearted, brilliant, inspiringly confident, Icelandic loon.
— Michael Rowland
_______________________________________________________________________
MICHAEL ROWLAND is a writer and artist, and a member of the Prague based Zvlášť Collective and Obejvák Project Space collaborative. He is Co-founder of the Alt*Art Society with Chantelle Goldthwaite; an international project set up to promote collaborative art projects around the world.