Poetry from the Low Countries: January 2018

Wednesday, 31 January 2018

Bride by Ton van Reen

BRIDE

A woman rests on the beach

sitting on a bundle of brushwood

cold jellyfish of blue-tinted glass

spread around her like jewels

Her hands lie on her lap

playing with a brittle shell

the pink mouth opened to the wind

a shout in which the sea races around

Motionless she looks out over the water

her headscarf is blowing like

a blue windvane towards the sea

a silent greeting to the fisherman

in his boat, small off the coast

The tide rolls towards her

a white fan of wet lace

is spreading out over her foot

With arms full of spume

the sea dresses her as a bride

Ton van Reen (1941)
[photo Internet]

Original Title: Bruid

Monday, 15 January 2018

Catherine Deneuve by Manuel Kneepkens

Catherine Deneuve

Catherine Deneuve
[photo Internet]

#Metoo is called in France #Balancetonporc

(blow the gaff on your pig!)

100 pretty French women are protesting

Catherine Deneuve belongs to them

'This is La Douce France, Nom de Dieu!

Gallantry we hold dear!'

A man's hand on a woman's thigh

is not Les liasons dangereuses!

A man's hand on a woman's bottom

is not L’Histoire d’ O!

Oh, good old Catherine Deneuve

once Buñuel's Belle de Jour

all Bad Men are grateful to you

Me too!

In the name of Marquis de Sade

I put you naked across my knee

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.