Author: kamiel79

Reading: Ellis Island by Peter Balakian
Today I read a poem from Armenian-American poet Peter Balakian (b. 1951). He won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2016 and has been vocal about never forgetting the 1909 Armenian Genocide (death and expulsion of 1.5 million people in what was then the Ottoman Empire). Here's a poem called Ellis Island, the island of ...
Reading: Lydia You Old Whore by Leonard Nathan
Leonard Nathan (1924-2007), a fine poet and translator who was an important figure at the University of Berkeley, California. I read a graphic poem about the oldest profession because I found something appealing in its language: Lydia, you old whore after Horace Loaded, pubic boys no longer tap Your windows with their palms and beg ...
The venerated veal reared to reveal a real venereal ordeal.
Reading: A Dirge by Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was an American poet and Trappist monk in Kentucky who published over 70 books including a very popular autobiography. I selected a poem about the victims of war (Merton was a social activist) because I like its powerful language: A dirge Some one who hears the bugle neigh will know How cold ...
Reading: The Unborn by Sharon Olds
Sharon Olds (b. 1942) is an American poet and a leading voice according to Poetry Foundation. She writes about the body and its pleasures and pains. She has won a Pulitzer prize (for Stag's Leap, 2013) and the British T.S. Eliot prize. She (or her work?) is widely anthologized, if that's the info you need. Today, I ...
Kerstwens
In haar beschouwelijke kerstboodschap schreef bevlogen collega-columnist en Roversdochter uit het Noorden Bronja Prazdny over je afkomst en je vader als inspiratiebron, en hoe gezwellen op het internet haar zulks kwalijk namen. Een persoonlijke thematiek, net als een persoonlijke schrijfstijl die gulziger is dan 4,9 woorden per zin, werd door de semi-alfabeten niet op prijs gesteld.
Reading: For The Anniversary Of My Death by W.S. Merwin
W.S. Merwin (b. 1927) is an American poet who became famous as an anti-war poet in the 1960s. He later developed an interest in buddism and deep ecology and moved to an old banana plantation on Maui, Hawai, which he restored to its original rainforest state. I read a timeless poem about celebrating the anniversary ...
Reading: Ships by Tomaž Šalamun
Tomaž Šalamun (1941-2014) was an adventurous, I think people say 'avant-garde' poet from Slovenia. I like what I see (or could we say: read) because it is mysterious and our world feels sometimes like mystery has been painted over. Here's 'ships' in a translation by Brian Henry: Ships I’m religious. As religious as the wind ...