Article
Editorial: June 2006
January 18, 2006
The last few weeks here have been busy with the lead up to the Poetry International festival (www.poetry.nl) in Rotterdam which takes place between 17th and 23rd June. Irish Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney will be headlining, and the festival line up includes a special programme to celebrate the Russian poet, Joseph Brodsky, ten years after his death; eight national Poetry Slam champions competing in the 3rd Poetry World Slampionship; Poetry&Art (in which visual artists investigate the border zone between poetry and visual art) and, last but not least, the presentation of the C. Buddingh’ prize for new Dutch-language poetry.
Although the main regional focus of the festival is Africa, poets from all around the world will be in attendance. The Netherlands pages in June’s issue of PIW showcase the vibrant and varied Dutch talent performing there. Poets such as F. van Dixhoorn, Elmar Kuiper, Piet Gerbrandy, and Elma van Haren demonstrate much playfulness, textual experimentation and shifting points of view in their poems, but this is underpinned by a degree of realism too. Hans Verhagen is a case in point with his neo-realism and ready-mades, poems drawn straight from daily life. And in Robert Anker’s poetry, “the tv is on and the newspapers are read” as Rob Schouten writes in his introduction.
Looking more widely across June’s issue, there are many instances of the writing process being written about, itself a form of self-reflexive realism (one assumes). The remarkably precocious and silver-tongued Leanne O’Sullivan from Ireland sets us off :
In her compatriot Gabriel Rosenstock’s ‘I open my poem’, oranges, dandelions, cuckoos, cats and falling walls open up worlds of possibilities and bring the creative process to the fore. If you venture back to the Dutch pages you’ll see that ‘I don’t want to spoil the mood’ by Elmar Kuiper has a similar feel.
Vlado Bulić from Croatia’s poems are simply inspiring, and he often mentions the poetry itself: “but, I do not want to fuck around with the form”, he writes in poem number 009 when picturing the idea of a Croatian haiku. And again, in poem number 002 :
You often feel like you’ve walked into a room halfway through a conversation in Bulić’s incredibly realistic poems. His mission seems to be to describe the disaffected youth of his country in a completely convincing way, and he succeeds entirely : “Loki was on about E/ said it was getting cheaper” (‘030’). Perhaps he would have things to discuss with Leanne O’Sullivan who also writes with freshness about her own generation.
Bulić is joined by another young poet, Marijana Radmilović. A poet of “lyrical introspection” according to Miloš Đurđević, she writes about motherhood, an uncommon theme in her national literature, and here again is (social) realism at work. The inconspicuous mother and her confined existence are wrought into the text. The interesting Indian poet, Anamika, also writes about woman’s condition, describing what sounds like a backwards existence while on the surface appearing to describe the modernity of a mobile telephone :
Her fellow countryman Pradodh Parikh lives in a world where giant chemical plants overshadow trees and “Ma sits making rotlis in the kitchen”. For him, the “poet reaches where no sun can reach” and is therefore an important bearer of messages about the nature of things, and “a creator of coherence and peace in a fractured world”.
Elisa Biagini from Italy also writes poetry focussed on the domestic realm, but her main interest in the poems selected here is the human body. She has written an intricate series of short poems about the bodies in a morgue. Her work is intensely medical and discomforting in its dissections. Rather than using poetry to transcend the quotidian, she uses the micro picture of the body (dead, injured, pregnant) to engage our attention and drive our thoughts towards mortality and the human condition.
Our plan for the coming months is to expand and develop the magazine in new directions, while continuing to bring you outstanding poetry from around the world. You’ll notice that some of the country’s home pages have already disappeared and the actual look and structure of the site is about to undergo a slight change. If you have any feedback about this or our site in general please drop me a line. And if you can, do join us at Poetry International festival this month.
Although the main regional focus of the festival is Africa, poets from all around the world will be in attendance. The Netherlands pages in June’s issue of PIW showcase the vibrant and varied Dutch talent performing there. Poets such as F. van Dixhoorn, Elmar Kuiper, Piet Gerbrandy, and Elma van Haren demonstrate much playfulness, textual experimentation and shifting points of view in their poems, but this is underpinned by a degree of realism too. Hans Verhagen is a case in point with his neo-realism and ready-mades, poems drawn straight from daily life. And in Robert Anker’s poetry, “the tv is on and the newspapers are read” as Rob Schouten writes in his introduction.
Looking more widely across June’s issue, there are many instances of the writing process being written about, itself a form of self-reflexive realism (one assumes). The remarkably precocious and silver-tongued Leanne O’Sullivan from Ireland sets us off :
I can never find a pen when you come,
when you snap me up on your lizard tongue
and wrap yourself around me as if I was a spool.
(‘Poetry’)
when you snap me up on your lizard tongue
and wrap yourself around me as if I was a spool.
(‘Poetry’)
In her compatriot Gabriel Rosenstock’s ‘I open my poem’, oranges, dandelions, cuckoos, cats and falling walls open up worlds of possibilities and bring the creative process to the fore. If you venture back to the Dutch pages you’ll see that ‘I don’t want to spoil the mood’ by Elmar Kuiper has a similar feel.
Vlado Bulić from Croatia’s poems are simply inspiring, and he often mentions the poetry itself: “but, I do not want to fuck around with the form”, he writes in poem number 009 when picturing the idea of a Croatian haiku. And again, in poem number 002 :
except for old Ivan who would say:
“True, he’s a knucklehead, but, by God, everything falls into place for him.”
he meant rhyme.
despite his ignorance of
the trends in contemporary poetry,
it cannot be denied that Ivan is
de facto an artist.
“True, he’s a knucklehead, but, by God, everything falls into place for him.”
he meant rhyme.
despite his ignorance of
the trends in contemporary poetry,
it cannot be denied that Ivan is
de facto an artist.
You often feel like you’ve walked into a room halfway through a conversation in Bulić’s incredibly realistic poems. His mission seems to be to describe the disaffected youth of his country in a completely convincing way, and he succeeds entirely : “Loki was on about E/ said it was getting cheaper” (‘030’). Perhaps he would have things to discuss with Leanne O’Sullivan who also writes with freshness about her own generation.
Bulić is joined by another young poet, Marijana Radmilović. A poet of “lyrical introspection” according to Miloš Đurđević, she writes about motherhood, an uncommon theme in her national literature, and here again is (social) realism at work. The inconspicuous mother and her confined existence are wrought into the text. The interesting Indian poet, Anamika, also writes about woman’s condition, describing what sounds like a backwards existence while on the surface appearing to describe the modernity of a mobile telephone :
I can go wherever I want
but in this man’s pocket
I can connect to anyone anywhere
but always under his thumb.
(‘Mobile’)
but in this man’s pocket
I can connect to anyone anywhere
but always under his thumb.
(‘Mobile’)
Her fellow countryman Pradodh Parikh lives in a world where giant chemical plants overshadow trees and “Ma sits making rotlis in the kitchen”. For him, the “poet reaches where no sun can reach” and is therefore an important bearer of messages about the nature of things, and “a creator of coherence and peace in a fractured world”.
Elisa Biagini from Italy also writes poetry focussed on the domestic realm, but her main interest in the poems selected here is the human body. She has written an intricate series of short poems about the bodies in a morgue. Her work is intensely medical and discomforting in its dissections. Rather than using poetry to transcend the quotidian, she uses the micro picture of the body (dead, injured, pregnant) to engage our attention and drive our thoughts towards mortality and the human condition.
Our plan for the coming months is to expand and develop the magazine in new directions, while continuing to bring you outstanding poetry from around the world. You’ll notice that some of the country’s home pages have already disappeared and the actual look and structure of the site is about to undergo a slight change. If you have any feedback about this or our site in general please drop me a line. And if you can, do join us at Poetry International festival this month.
© Michele Hutchison
Sponsors
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère