how about them kitties?

are you on the loose, lonely moose?

geluk

Jare gelede dit maak nie saak wanneer
by my eerste ontmoeting dit maak nie saak met wie
het ons mekaar op 'n tydstip los van tyd
stip aangekyk, gekyk.

Soms flits dit weer in my bewussyn terug
verblindend skerp, 'n pyl van louter lig,
beys en waarborg van ek weet nie wat.

-Elisabeth Eybers, 1982-

winter tree

it is here (for A)

What sound was that?

I turn away, into the shaking room.

What was that sound that came in the dark?
What is this maze of light it leaves us in?
What is this stance we take,
to turn away and then turn back?
What did we hear?

It was the breath we took when we first met.

Listen. It is here.

-Harold Pinter, 1990-
Harold Pinter died 25 December 2008

het vrolijkt

Mij vrolijkt het
als bij de boerdeij
waar deze trein
voorbij rijdt, vijf
blauwe overalls
te drogen hangen
aan een lijn.

Mij vrolijkt ook
de gans die in een wei
lijkt te staan peinzen.

-Judith Herzberg, 2008 (uit: Het vrolijkt)-

happy holidays!

met kerstrood ...

... heeft de digitale camera moeite

doordenkertje

I am not what I think I am.
I am not what you think I am.
I am what I think you think I am.

-A.H. Bleiberg & H.E. Leubling, 1971-

anemone transformation

adventure

For there is only one great adventure and that is inward towards the self, and for that, time nor space nor even deeds matter.

-Henry Miller, 1961 (from: Tropic of Capricorn)-

which one is different?

let it go

Invreemd is dit diep om het even
Hoe meer dingen je beleeft
Hoe minder je onthoudt
Of weer kan geven.

De tegenstrijdigheden vormen zo een lange rij.
Praten zou praten zijn erlangs en er voorbij.
Je wilt geen gekkenhuis
en wat dat inhoudt.

-Judith Herzberg, 2008 (uit: Het vrolijkt)-
naar William Empson

It is this deep blankness is the real thing strange.

  The more things happen to you the more you can't

    Tell or remember even what they were.

The contradictions cover such a range.

  The talk would talk and go so far aslant.

    You don't want madhouse and the whole thing there.

-William Empson, 1949-

ansichtinzicht (3)

on life

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.

-Robert Frost (1874-1963)-
(American poet, one of his most famous poems: the road not taken)

coast series

modern life

The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned.

-Antonio Gramsci (1897-1937)-

blue winter

 

      Winter uses all the blues there are.
      One shade of blue for water, one for ice,
      Another blue for shadows over snow.
      The clear or cloudy sky uses blue twice-
      Both different blues. And hills row after row
      Are colored blue according to how for.
      You know the bluejay's double-blur device
      Shows best when there are no green leaves to show.
      And Sirius is a winterbluegreen star.

-Robert Francis, 1936-

christmas? bring it on!

kerst: de buren zijn er klaar voor, nu wij nog....

geology is poetry

Earth, sea, air: one element, interdependent,
      an ecological unit, to preserve
Or to pollute, make up your mind
      while you've still got a mind.
A cycle so intricate that to quote a geologist, not a poet:
      'the next breath you breathe will contain
Atoms exhaled by Jesus at Gethsemane
      and Hitler at Munich'. Not may,
But will. A metaphor I knew
      but did not dare. Geology is poetry
Where poetry is true.

-Ronald Duncan, 1971, from Man Part II, Canto Fifteen-

dank u sinterklaasje! (2)

hij was lekker

the true holiday spirit?

Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff.

-Frank Zappa (1940-1993)-

scheveningen (12)

 

 

 by night

scheveningen (11)

dank u sinterklaasje!

Die 't ambacht wel verstaet,
daar hij van leven moet,
en die 't niet wel alleen,
maar wel en geerne doet,
beleeft het grootst geluk
dat iemand kan begeren.

Const. Huygens (1596-1687)

voorkomen is beter

God schudde zijn ernstig betwijfelde hoofd-

als voorkomen beter was dan genezen,
dan was hij nergens aan begonnen,
dan was het nu nog nul uur nul
op de nulde dag
en bleef het dat-

hij bijt op zijn niet langer voorstelbare nagels
en gluurt naar beneden-

straks gaat hij genezen,
in zijn aandoenlijke wijsheid weet híj alleen
waarvan.

-Toon Tellegen, 2002-

scheveningen (10)

same sculputure by day

way out

The best way out is always through.

-Robert Frost, 1914 -
(American poet, one of his most famous poems: the road not taken)

poinsettia, hortensia?

(poinsettia = kerstster)

scheveningen (9)

breakfast

enkhuizen railway station

utopia

Island where all becomes clear.

Solid ground beneath your feet.

The only roads are those that offer access.

Bushes bend beneath the weight of proofs.

The Tree of Valid Supposition grows here

with branches disentangled since time immermorial.

The Tree of Understanding, dazzling staight and simple.

sprouts by the spring called Now I Get It.

The thicker the woods, the vaster the vista:

the Valley of Obviously.

If any doubts arise, the wind dispels them instantly.

Echoes stir unsummoned

and eagerly explain all the secrets of the worlds.

On the right a cave where Meaning lies.

On the left the Lake of Deep Conviction.

Truth breaks from the bottom and bobs to the surface.

Unshakable Confidence towers over the valley.

Its peak offers an excellent view of the Essence of Things.

For all its charms, the island is uninhabited,

and the faint footprints scattered on its beaches

turn without exception to the sea.

As if all you can do here is leave

and plunge, never to return, into the depths.

Into unfathomable life.

-Wislawa Szymborska, 1976-

(Poland, translation Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh)

strandvondst (4)

scheveningen sunset

ansichtinzicht (2)

competence

Competence, like truth, beauty and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder.

- Laurence J. Peter, 1969-

skarvheimen sunset

scheveningen (8)

-Heinrich Heine, 1827-

een mens om van te houden

Zijn oude ziel
draagt hij lachend
onder de arm.
Maar niet als clown.

Rimpels van verdriet
gladstrijkend
dartelt hij,
onbevangen kind,
verwonderd
door de wereld
zijn liefdedaden
aan de man brengend.

-Anna Vali, 1977-

solitude (3)

Words are a net;
Feeling, the water escapes through the meshes
I fish for silence.

-Ronald Duncan, 1961 (no 27 from The Solitudes)-

utrecht railway station

torngats sunset

language

There are no handles upon a language
Whereby men take hold of it
And mark it with signs for its remembrance.
It is a river, this language,
Once in a thousand years
Breaking a new course
Changing its way to the ocean.
It is mountain effluvia
Moving to valleys
And from nation to nation
Crossing borders and mixing.
Languages die like rivers.
Words wrapped round your tongue today
And broken to shape of thought
Between your teeth and lips speaking
Now and today
Shall be faded hieroglyphics
Ten thousand years from now.
Sing—and singing—remember
Your song dies and changes
And is not here tomorrow
Any more than the wind
Blowing ten thousand years ago.

-Carl Sandburg, 1916-

dinner (5)

romanesco they calls it

(but it looks likes a christmas tree, doesn't it? and it tastes just like cauliflower)

still picture

problem?

 

toothpaste for dinner

well-known quote:

if you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem

is a paraphrase of:

you're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem

-Eldridge Cleaver, 1968-

full blown rose

twenty days old rose

meeting

It is the dead of night,

The long dead look out towards
The new dead
Walking towards them

There is a soft heartbeat
As the dead embrace
Those who are long dead
And those of the new dead
Walking towards them

They cry and they kiss
As they meet again
For the first and last time

-Harold Pinter, 2002-

scheveningen (7)

rozeschijn

 

        en vandaag is het de elfde
        en hij is precies hetzelfde,

        als de twaalfde of de tiende
        ik kreeg wat ik verdiende

        rozegeur, maneschijn

        rozegeur, maneschijn,

        roze schijn.

-Rob Chrispijn, 1970 (liedtekst voor Herman van Veen)-

19:20, the cat train ...

 

... is ready for departure

destination: a long night

...en dat is honderd

strandvondst (3)

on secrets

How can you expect somebody to keep a secret if you can't keep it yourself?

or, in other words

If you wish another to keep your secret, keep it to yourself.

scheveningen (6)

woordeloos

Terwijl die waarheid klaarder skyn
sal die getye ons nerfkaal stroop,
afsigtelikheid kom reeds in sig.
Al wat ek vra
al wat ek hoop
is om, wanneer my brein te voos
word om met woordvernuf die pyn
en dorheid óm te dig,
dit te verdra
hoe ook al, woordeloos.

-Elisabeth Eybers, 1982-

ansichtinzicht

a rose is still a rose

same rose, one week later

een poes

een poes

is een gedicht

op pootjes

-Ronald van der Spiegel, 2008-