Piet Gerbrandy

Gerbrandy transports the reader into a crashing high but always throws him out of it again. His poetry often turns, apart from and against wimps, power-wielders and wise-guys, against itself, its maker and its readers. The acts of writing and reading are constant attempts to make sense out of a reality that is basically there to be experienced. And lovers of poetry also run the risk of entrenching themselves: ‘Do you consume studies and avoid the source?’

Although literacy leaps from the page, the poetic tradition of centuries does not function as an easy pillow. On the contrary, it shows that poetry keeps harping on its own insufficiency. But precisely because it is aware of its uselessness, and its illusory longing for rest, it is not completely meaningless. Poetry has a right to speak, insofar as it seeks contrasts and makes them perceptible, as it evokes longing and shows the unattainability. In that way, it takes you back to your paltry existence: ‘Brains wrack themselves for source of sustenance’.

Physicality is what Gerbrandy always refers back to. The greatest dichotomy to be leveled out is that between life and death. What is alive is still here. The frequent word ‘still’, especially in the hard entreaty, ‘Remain that longer still the well in which I calve”, is evidence not only of unattainability but also of a seething life-will caught in a fight to the death. ‘What can ever will and worse than reckoned with’. Until then, there is also Gerbrandy’s poetry.
Bibliography

Poetry
Weloverwogen en onopgemerkt, Meulenhoff, Amsterdam 1996
       Winner of the Van der Hoogt Prize
       Nominated for the C. Buddingh’-prijs
Nors en zonder haten, Meulenhoff, Amsterdam 1999
       Nominated for the VSB Poetry Prize
De zwijgende man is niet bitter, Meulenhoff, Amsterdam 2001
       Winner of the Herman Gorter Prize
       Nominated for the VSB Poetry Prize
Drievuldig feilloos vals, Meulenhoff, Amsterdam 2005
Krang en zing, Atlas Contact, Amsterdam, 2006
Vriendinnen, Atlas Contact, Amsterdam, 2010
Morgen ben ik vrij, Atlas Contact, Amsterdam, 2010
       Winner of the Jan Campert Prize
       Nominated for the 2015 VSB Poetry Prize
Voegwoorden, Atlas Contact, Amsterdam, 2015
Vloedlijnen, Atlas Contact, Amsterdam, 2018

Prose
Vlinderslag, Atlas Contact, Amsterdam, 2013
Smijdige witheid, Atlas Contact, Amsterdam, 2015
Steencirkels, Atlast Contact, Amsterdam, 2017

Essays & translations (selection)
Boeken die ertoe doen: over klassieke literatuur, Meulenhoff, Amsterdam 2000
Quintilianus: De opleiding tot redenaar, translation & introduction by Piet Gerbrandy, Historische Uitgeverij, Groningen 2001
Een steeneik op de rotsen, Meulenhoff, Amsterdam 2003
Omroepers van oproer, Breekijzers in taal, Contact, Amsterdam 2006
Grondwater, Atlas Contact, Amsterdam, 2017

Links

In Dutch:
Gerbrandy at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Royal Library, The Hague)
Gerbrandy's Wikipedia entry


Piet Gerbrandy participated in the Poetry International Festival in 2006. This text was written on that occasion and subsequently has been updated.