The sun in the pan

November 18, 2013 One of the first things that strikes one about F. van Dixhoorn’s most recent ‘publication’ is the carefully thought out graphic design. It is no collection in the traditional sense of the word, instead it consists of a cover with two poems presented in two separate books. Alternatively it may be one poem that branches out into two because ‘poem’ is the word written on the cover, not ‘poems’. At the same time, the De zon in de pan / 4. De zon in de pan [The sun in the pan / 4. The sun in the pan] is, in a certain sense, a classic Van Dixhoorn poem with short sentences which may or may not be preceded by a number and which are very precisely positioned on the page.

Once again in this collection the sentences come across as almost incidentally registered fragments but with a more emphatic repetition of the sentence objects than in his previous collections. The tone of the sentences is direct and somewhat akin to spoken language. The content resides in the transitional area that is so prevalent in Dutch sentences; it is not situated in the main words of the message but rather in the dance around them. Again, Van Dixhoorn introduces the reader to common words and expressions and in De zon in de pan / 4. De zon in de pan [The sun in the pan/ 4. The sun in the pan] that acquaintance is renewed on every page. By continually combining the repeated ‘around / the one after / the other / around’ with new sentences and new sentence parts the effect and presence felt by these words changes. That is certainly the case where the repetition is interrupted by the two terza rima: ‘each time after the / 4. what changes / 4. if nothing changes’ and ‘do you mean / what changes / if nothing changes’. It is a striking phenomenon but it serves to prove the great strength of the work of Van Dixhoorn which is that even the humblest of words can be invested with so much force that they blow the reader out of his chair. In a manner of speaking, then, for the reverse also applies because as Tonnus Oosterhoff so rightly commented, just like looking at the Westerwoldse Aa or listening to the St. Matthew’s Passion, reading the works of F. van Dixhoorn can equally plunge a person into infinity. 
 
The poetry of F. van Dixhoorn is poetry that happens as one reads it. His poetry does not set out, in beautifully presented phrasing, to describe anything that exists external to the poem. No matter how everyday or ordinary the words or sentence constituents are, they are not designed to subject simple reality to any kind of poetic scrutiny. In the poems of Van Dixhoorn the language takes a stance as a fact. That is no mean thing. Indeed, it is the fact of the words alone that serves to create a space that is endless. One never finishes reading De zon in de pan [The sun in the pan], the poem goes on for ever.
 
F. van Dixhoorn (1948) published poems in Raster and De Revisor before then going on to produce his debut collection Jaagpad / Rust in de tent / Zwaluwen vooruit [Towpath / Peace and quiet / Swallows get going] (1994) which, in that same year, was awarded the C. Buddingh’ Prize. Van Dixhoorn’s second collection appeared in 1997 Armzwaai/ Grote keg/ Loodswezen I [Gesticulation / Big wedge / Pilotage I] and that was followed by Takken molenwater/ Kastanje jo/ Hakke tonen/ Uiterton/ Molen in de zon [Mill-water branches / Chestnut jo / Chopping tones / Final beacon / Mill in the sun] (2000) and then Dan op de zeevaartschool [Then at the nautical college] (2003). In 2007 Twee piepjes [Two small peeps] came out which was nominated for the 2008 Ida Gerhardt Poetry Prize.