Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Kim Moore

How The Stones Fell

Hoe de stenen vielen

We leerden dat we geboren waren uit stenen, dat de laatste
man en vrouw die de vloed overleefden van hun vlot klommen
op de schouders van een berg en over het water keken
dat alles verzwolgen had.

Dagenlang was er een zee geweest maar geen kust, nu het water
zijn lip omkrulde en de boomtoppen losliet
volgden de man en de vrouw, liepen zij de helling af,
raakten hun voeten de waterrand,

hun armen gevuld met de botten van de aarde, hun lange haar
dat stroomde tot hun middel. Zij wierpen stenen achter zich
en uit de hand van de man viel een steen die uitgroeide tot
een andere man en uit de hand van de vrouw

viel een steen die uitgroeide tot een andere vrouw en zo groeiden wij,
onze ogen als vuursteen en onze mond die smaakte naar aarde.
We waren geboren uit stenen en voorbestemd te leven
als stenen, en verwarmden ons aan de zon,

barstten open als de temperatuur daalde, we zeiden dat we iets
van de zee in ons hadden, maar daarmee, als met zoveel andere zaken,
logen we, er was nooit water in ons hart, we droegen stenen
in onze zakken, we droegen hen in onze handen.

How The Stones Fell

We learnt that we were born from stones, that the last
man and woman to survive the flood climbed from their raft
onto the shoulders of a  mountain and looked across the water
which had swallowed everything.

For days there had been a sea but no shore, now as the water
curled back its lip and let go of the tops of trees
the man and woman followed, walking down the slope,
their feet touching the edges of the water,

their arms full of the bones of the earth, their hair long
and flowing to their waists.  They cast stones behind them
and from the hand of the man a stone fell and grew into
another man and from the hand of the woman

a stone fell and grew into another woman and so we grew,
our eyes like flints and our mouths tasting of the earth. 
We were born from stones and we were destined to live
like stones, warming ourselves in the sun,

cracking when the temperature fell, we said there was
something of the sea in us, but in this, like many other things
we lied, it was never water in our hearts, we carried stones
in our pockets, we carried them in our hands.
Close

How The Stones Fell

We learnt that we were born from stones, that the last
man and woman to survive the flood climbed from their raft
onto the shoulders of a  mountain and looked across the water
which had swallowed everything.

For days there had been a sea but no shore, now as the water
curled back its lip and let go of the tops of trees
the man and woman followed, walking down the slope,
their feet touching the edges of the water,

their arms full of the bones of the earth, their hair long
and flowing to their waists.  They cast stones behind them
and from the hand of the man a stone fell and grew into
another man and from the hand of the woman

a stone fell and grew into another woman and so we grew,
our eyes like flints and our mouths tasting of the earth. 
We were born from stones and we were destined to live
like stones, warming ourselves in the sun,

cracking when the temperature fell, we said there was
something of the sea in us, but in this, like many other things
we lied, it was never water in our hearts, we carried stones
in our pockets, we carried them in our hands.

How The Stones Fell

Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds
Lira fonds
Versopolis
J.E. Jurriaanse
Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
Elise Mathilde Fonds
Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot
Veerhuis
VDM
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère