A specter haunts Europe, the specter of seventeen syllables (5/7/5) called Haiku. The president of the European Union regularly publishes his writings and reads them, in the accustomed way, that is twice. I guess it is because it so brief, that one has to hear it twice, our attention having been primed by the first reading. It often shares an insight, a common occurrence or a seasonal element, called 'a kigo' in Japanese. Also landscape elements are required. Gust Gils a Flemish poet and a bit of a contrarian wrote some funny haiku which he called 'Flandriu'.
Marleen De Smet wrote the following as a gesture of resistance against violence:
een gebroken steen
huilt met duizend breuklijnen
ik weet het zeker
a shattered stone
cries with a thousand fault lines
I know for sure
You can hear her read (also some love poems) on September 18, in the main Library Permeke in Antwerp, during a performance organized as a satellite project in the framework of Ruhr area 2010, Cultural Capital of Europe.
No comments:
Post a Comment