Month: juli 2018

Cloud Watching with my Child
We lie still on a silent green slope watching the clouds for hours in their unending transformation You see a crocodile, I see a monkey, you see a turtle, I see a tiny fish then there is silence and I think of you Much later, attuned to thoughts of grief oblivious of the highs and ...
Gezellig potje Twitter gespeeld
Vandaag gunde ik mezelf wat puberaal vermaak met het verguisde gezelschapsspel "Twitter", niet te verwarren met Twister dat we vroeger op kinderverjaardagen speelden, toen je als tienjarige nog niet hoefde te vrezen voor een aanklacht van je negenjarige speelkameraadje vanwege ongewenste intimiteiten. Twitter wordt liefkozend het open riool of de kloaka van opinieland genoemd, en wie ...
Reading: Lost Love by Gregory Djanikian
Gregory Djanikian (b. 1949) is an Egyptian born American poet with Armenian roots. He writes about the emigration experience, in particular about the way the English language is enriched by immigrants. I read a love poem today: Lost Love Someone is walking up and down the street crying “My lost love, my lost love!” without ...
Meditation on nature
Close your eyes and breathe in. How do we meditate about nature? Let us think of some cliché scenes of nature: magnificent Alpine peaks, unspoilt blue lakes, endless tundra, rain forest. The concept of nature seems to be defined as those objects left alone by men. The fewer humans have set foot somewhere, the more ...
Reading: Between the Sultan and His Statue by Yusuf al-Saigh
Yusuf al-Saigh (1933-2006) was an Iraqi poet who has published poetry since the 1950s. He also worked as an illustrator and painter. I read a short verse that nicely renders the working of symbolic authority: Between the Sultan and His Statue A wily sculptor Cut several pounds off the sultan’s figure And added several pounds ...
Meditation on truth
How do we meditate on the idea of truth? Philosophers have written about it for many centuries. We will not revisit the theories of Aristotle, Aquinas, Hegel, Kant, Frege, Derrida. We don't need to remember anything if we think for ourselves. Take a long breath. Truth is a property of statements, not of things. We ...
Reading: Dark Eyes Touching Clear Sky by Kattya Janssen
Kattya Janssen (b. ?) is a Dutch poet and artist. I read a poem from the section 'Lust' on her website: Dark bodies touching clear sky Underneath crisp pearly grass Feverish shadows Oakwood touching hands Capricious patterns of roughness The sliding of a foot Fanciful flowers crushing Aurora shows up The cold whim of the ...
identity
strap me down on a vivisection table study my humors, my bile, my spleen I'm keen to know who I am and if I'm able but don't forget to stitch me up again.
Meditation on reality
First we breathe in and feel blessed. What inspired our meditation about reality must have been our involvement with it, in some way. There are people who think that what we call reality is 'in reality' a fiction. The universe is empty space laced with energy and some of this energy takes on a special ...