Poetry from the Low Countries: Oldtimer by Manuel Kneepkens

Thursday, 22 December 2016

Oldtimer by Manuel Kneepkens

Oldtimer

And in Arcadia my father in his cult cabriolet, a Joyce Jupiter
The Bronze Age of Romans and Celts overshadowed
by the joycean hat brim of his Borsalino

And always in Valkenburg, on the top of the Cauberg
at the height of Klant's Zoo (closed for ages)
he called to me over his shoulder

''Are we rising, Sunny Boy?''

The entire Chalkland gushed green over my tongue
In my stomach the swirling Styx
came to a stop

Ah well, I wanted to belong to the Army
of Hellas' able-bodied men, however carsick I was before Troy....

''On the contrary we
D
E
S
C

N
D
Darth Father!''

And our escape from South Limburg's labyrinth
had not yet begun......

(No way green hills! No way Deirdre! No way Sons of Usnach:

Foolhardy IRA-members, all of them!)

Poor daddy

Engineer Daedalus

Bloody Belfast

Manuel Kneepken (1942)
[photo Internet]

Original Title: Old Timer

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Hans van den Bos

was born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1948.

In the late Sixties, after National Service, he began working in a bookshop, which he took over after a number of years. The shop, under his direction, became specialised in Literature, Modern Art and Architecture, containing one of the largest collections of poetry in the whole of The Netherlands.

He was invited, in the 1990's, by the former director of Poetry International, the late Martin Mooij, to display his poetry collection on a book stall at the annual festival in Rotterdam. In 1997 he closed the shop and 5 years later emigrated to Ireland, where he is presently busy as a writer and translator of poetry.

Contact: JohannesvandenBos@protonmail.com

Hilary Reynolds

Hilary Reynolds is an English/Dutch classical singer, music teacher and choral conductor, who was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela in 1954.

She studied singing and piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London and, after graduating in 1978, moved to The Netherlands, where she pursued a career as a concert singer and vocal coach. In 2002, she moved to Ireland, together with her husband, Hans van den Bos, where she had been invited by the Head of the Music Department of University College Cork to take up a post there teaching Vocal Studies, Art-Song and Opera.

For a number of years, she has collaborated with Hans van den Bos writing theatre shows and plays and assisted with translations of his own work as well as of other poets, including translations of Russian poetry by Anna Achmatova.