Break

The yellow warmth of the sun
Breaking through the cool glass of the window
Is entering my skin,
Staying there for the rest of the day
In this glowing condition
Even when the clouds return
To take in their rightful position.

I shall sit here today by the window, all hours,
Where the yellow warmth can be felt,
With nothing else on my mind
Than the purring of cats, the colours of flowers
And don’t call me lazy.
I am having a break from the world.
I am having a break from the crazy.

Performance

They are watching me and have so many eyes,
This organic phenomena called audience,
Silent for a moment as I do my reading,
A grey sea of heads, obliged
To listen carefully to what is told.

Once I’m inside the poem I forget them,
Not wondering about their verdict,
Concentrating on my own words
As if they really matter,
My inner soul revealed
Now the words unfold.

But someone there might guess
That inside every proclaimed line
I do worry about my fly
And will the zipper hold.

🙂

Nor you

An intense purple fading into pinkish pulp,
My veins are moving as I breathe
Actuated without help:
I am, but now already not the one I was.

From the beginning there’s an earlier,
It won’t be more nor less, as
All is streaming, sometimes going everywhere.
I listen to the stronger sound,
On all sides live is raging by me.

Where the beginning of our truce is, I don’t know
And where the end lies, what does it matter.
As the skies never are the same
I can not stay the way I am. Nor you,
Who, of all the streams, was the most accommodating.

(Dichter bij zee 2015. The theme was : everything flows  – panta rhei)

Ook jij niet

Een heftig paars vervaagt tot roze pulp,
Mijn aderen bewegen als ik adem,
Voortgedreven zonder hulp:
Ik ben, maar nu al niet meer die ik was.

Van aanvang af is er een eerder,
Het wordt niet minder en niet meer want
alles stroomt, soms alle kanten uit.
Ik luister naar het sterkere geluid,
Aan alle kanten raast het leven langs me.

Waar het begin is van ons bondje weet ik niet,
En waar het einde wacht, wat kan het schelen.
Zoals de luchten nooit hetzelfde zijn,
Kan ik niet blijven wie ik ben. Ook jij niet, die
Van alle stromen de meest meegaande was.

Poetry event “Dichter bij zee 2015”

Yesterday evening was the poetry event “Dichter bij zee 2015” , where people read their own poetry. There also was a nationally known poet, Ruben van Gogh, and the winner of the poetry competition was announced. For the category of 16+ the winning poem was “Ook jij niet”, written by me. 🙂 So there I was on stage.

Last year, my poem “Verrinneweerd” also wan, a shared first price. I translated the poem “Devastated” and put in on my blog. It will be in Roads 2. I had put it on the Poetry from the sea blog and this year a reader told me she had found the poem on a scarf that she bought at C&A in Germany. So they had just taken the text from my blog.

I googled, the scarf is on sale in various countries. I also purchased 2 to have some evidence. Nice scarfs 🙂 My publisher is dealing with the matter now, and I do hope some right will be done.

I am not sure I can translate “Ook jij nog” but I shall give it a try later on.

For now, I am very grateful and a little proud to have been involved in the event.

This is the poem in Dutch:
Ook jij niet

Een heftig paars vervaagt tot roze pulp,
Mijn aderen bewegen als ik adem,
Voortgedreven zonder hulp:
Ik ben, maar nu al niet meer die ik was.

Van aanvang af is er een eerder,
Het wordt niet minder en niet meer want
alles stroomt, soms alle kanten uit.
Ik luister naar het sterkere geluid,
Aan alle kanten raast het leven langs me.

Waar het begin is van ons bondje weet ik niet,
En waar het einde wacht, wat kan het schelen.
Zoals de luchten nooit hetzelfde zijn,
Kan ik niet blijven wie ik ben. Ook jij niet, die
Van alle stromen de meest meegaande was.

Black, no sugar

Are my thoughts really silent for another?
Or does sound escape from the bone walls of my skull?
As sometimes you do speak my mind so well
And I often scream my silent wonder, so
It would make sense to me
That by hearing you could tell.

Is my hope of private thoughts a disillusion?
Confusion, I start thinking you are psychic,
All my feelings, likes and dislikes an open book perhaps.

Then you ask me about coffee, milk and sugar?
Stuff I think that you would know.
Relieved I realise
My secret thoughts will never show.
Black! No sugar!

Renewal

The tree we thought had died,
is green now,
this miracle is May,
exploding and emerging
from such fragile eggs,
from most vulnerable mammals,
out of wasted grounds, belief
and in polluted seas, it comes,
from hope against a better judgement,
out of the blue
out of pain and grief
with amazing colours, driven
by a force so strong,
in ancient sounds.
The earth renews.
What almost went,
once more a chance is given.

Meeting in masses

We are dozens of people
Walking silently in two directions,
And none of us know each other,
We only recognise the colours
And shapes, all different yet the same.

And we don’t look at the others as we pass,
We ignore them moving as they ignore us,
In same pace, from one place
To another same place,
We don’t touch, we don’t bump. Civilized.

And then there is your face,
And dozens of people
Are gone from my view –
Except you and me, I see no one.
You see me. You see me!

We were dozens of people
Away from each other.
I always knew we would meet again
Here, in this place
Walking silently in the masses.

Not regretted it

So we have loved and not regretted it,
We looked for reasons in the other’s eyes,
In waterfalls, in fires that we lit,
As we have loved and we shall love again.

For now the well is dry and tumbleweeds
are moving faster than forgotten clouds,
The sound is that of wind in evening streets
Where we have loved and we shall love again.

As we have loved and not regretted it.
As we’ve moved on, but not forgotten it,
As we will find. As we walk further on.

Stealing borrowed hours

I borrowed some good hours to be me,
To walk my pace along a listening sea
Where gulls stole my thoughts to take far away.
Above my head circling, they screamed to say
That finders are keepers. Well, fine by me.
The borrowed hours stay mine too, you see.
😉

just a bit of fun 🙂

In love

If I say I can see the sea rise madly in your eyes,
The whole sea coming ashore with everything in it,
With silvery fish and big rusty anchors approaching,
Jelly fish and whales jumping up to sadly fall down,
You don’t believe that I am drowning, that it is not real
I see the sea rising madly in your eyes you say,
But I am, and I do, and the sea and everything in it
Is taking me over. I’m drowning in your eyes.