Jouni Inkala encounters Anton Chekhov, Joseph Brodsky and Ludwig Wittgenstein, among others, in his collection of poetry Kirjoittamaton[1] which approaches its semi-fictional subjects with sharp twists and sarcastic asides.
The titles of the collections, Huonetta ja sukua (Room and family, 1994) and Pyhien seura (The Company of Saints, 1996), refer to the Bible and to a religious tradition, but employ largely the same material as in his depot.
In the collection Sille joka jää (For the one who remains, 1998) Biblical events and religious themes in fact form a framework to which the poems can refer.
The poems, which take place in an instrument shop, the Viking Museum, on a winter's evening or in Finnmark in Norway, seem to have returned both to the mood of his debut and stylistically to traditional Finnish modernism.
Much literature discusses the idea of "otherness", yet in his poems Inkala proves that human beings are always part of a greater, intentional order, for which we should rejoice and give thanks.