Month: november 2017

Breedtegraad
Zonder er iets voor te hoeven doen trof ik een kopie van Goethe's Italiaanse reis aan op mijn e-reader, een degelijk reisverslag geschreven in goed verzorgd Duits, waarin de auteur, die toen hij deze lievelingsreis aantrad in het Germaanse reeds een gevierd man was, nauwkeurig verslag doet van het geleidelijk veranderende landschap dat hij waarneemt ...
Reading: The pleasures of the door by Francis Ponge
Francis Ponge (1899-1988) was known as the poet of things. For a future anthology, that drifts further and further away in my imagination the more poetry I am exposed to, I read a thing about doors in an English translation by Raymond Federman: The Pleasures of the Door Kings do not touch doors. They do ...
Reading: Eating Poetry by Mark Strand
This poem by prominent American poet Mark Strand (1934-2014) was just delicious in its simplicity. I quote from the website of Poetry Foundation: Eating Poetry Ink runs from the corners of my mouth. There is no happiness like mine. I have been eating poetry. The librarian does not believe what she sees. Her eyes are ...
Reading: Burning of books by Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)! When I was living in Berlin I intuitively liked the other of the Dreigroschenoper and Mutter Courage, even though I never sat through a live performance of his great plays for lack of money. He would understand. In his poetry, Brecht was a master of political verse, if I may lecture you ...
Imagination
sparrows on the horizon like musical notes on a bar in front of them, on the G I plant the violin key that old shading tree the world listens not to the songbirds she listens to me.
Reading: Past One O’Clock by Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930) was one of the important futurist Sovjet poets. He was a versatile writer, with work ranging from stage plays, poetry, travel books, propaganda... He committed suicide in 1930. I heard his name, but when I saw his photograph I wanted to read his poetry, too. This short poem was written in 1930 ...
Reading: Body, Remember by Constantine Cavafy
Cavafy (1863-1933) was of course one of the most important Greek modern poets. I read this short poem in an English translation by  Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard Body, Remember Body, remember not only how much you were loved, not only the beds you lay on, but also those desires that glowed openly in eyes ...
Reading: The little mute boy by Lorca
I am going to call Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) one of my favorite poets. Perhaps because I like surrealism when it is done well, or because I am as old today than he ever became, which gives some profundity to my admiration of his mighty words. I enjoy the power of longer poems like City that ...
Reading: The Stranger by Gabriela Mistral
Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957), pseudonym of Lucila Godoy Alcayaga, was the first Spanish Amerian woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature (1945). I was impressed by the imagery of her poem La extranjera, that I read here in an English translation by Helene Masslo Anderson: The Stranger She speaks in her way of her savage ...