Dutch Scifaiku

verlopen shuttle -- metaalmoeheid in de romp -- houdt vandaag siësta

Scifaikus

collar of moonlets -- space tourist arrested -- looted antiquities



burglars leave with empty crates -- holo-ideals lost
[ virtual furniture robbed ]


starclusters change course -- hitting the Milky Way -- expresso macchiato

Presentatie dichtbundel Vier

Ja, de langverwachte bundel dichtbundel 'Vier' ligt bijna in de winkel!

Maar eerst, op 25 november 2007, presenteren acht Almeerse dichters de bundel en lezen voor uit eigen werk, met medewerking van zangkoor Weerklank in theater De Roestbak, Markt, Almere Haven. Aanvang: 14.30 uur, toegang gratis. Voor meer informatie, surft u naar http://www.aldichter.nl/ of stuur mij een berichtje!

Videopoems

Discovering the delights of poetry and other arts...

London, a different point of view:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YvN_eQYDlUs

A Star's End:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OyjTT_sNnXM

An old house, a world (poem in Dutch):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPCSuT4zeck

Transport

Transportation by feet, better known as walking, shows the world in a different rythm. Buildings and perspectives approach and vanish slowly, while one notices small details: a noisy bird, trees in weird shapes, uncomprehensible works of art. And one wonders where everyone is heading with so much hurry, all those impatient drivers, clumsy cyclists, polluting motocycles flash around.

It must be, that life in this world accelerates in the same pace as the capacity of computer components. We tend to cram as many things as possible in one day. And somehow, that capacity increases every 24 months, as we need to keep up with the latest fashion trends, meet up with friends, make family and in-laws happy with our visiting, work out on machines and music we don't like. And the same goes for multitasking, that capacity also doubles every 24 months: doing the laundry while chatting with acquaintances, writing a long e-mail to an overseas friends lost in the backpack tracks of Thailand, explaining an aunt over the phone how to get here from the station and asking a studying colleague who combines partime work, motherhood, and a business course by sms/text how her exam did go.

So I take a breath, put on a pair of shoes, close the door and get lost in the whole wide world. My thoughts wander with me as leave the daily pettiness behind. I even notice the sky and all I worry about is whether that darkish grey cloud will move in my direction and release its humid burden at that instant.

Walking along a river

London, obviously, is a conglomerate of villages. When following the Thames path, one notices the changing tides.

Two weeks ago, just before the flooding in the UK began, I walked the Thames path, meandering through touristical areas, neighbourhoods in the process of refurbishment (to put it optimistically), little harbour inlets with sleek yachts where renovated warehouses betray a once bullicious trading area, skyscrapers built on former docks, the (probably) polluting factories of a syrup manyfacturer.

Changing tides in many senses, as industry and shipment of goods recede to the background, to make room for a more optimistic era-of-the-arts-and-global-villages. A former powerstation becomes a museum (Tate Modern) and a disregarded harbour turns into an international financial centre (Canary Wharf).

One cannot help but get infected by this optimism, and see in every rundown building an artgallery, a skyscraper, a visitor centre of some wonder of the industrial age that the Thames is ridden with.

While breathing the rainy air with a hint of thunder in the background, I realised I was walking along a famous curve of the river. Famous because of a satellite picture shown endlessly on TV: the credits of the TV-series 'Eastenders'. And suddenly, I understood why I didn't feel like a tourist. I somehow played a part in a broader picture, in the changing history of a neighbourhood, witnessing the tides of time myself, undulating to and fro.

Or something like that.

I took a tube from the O2 -formerly known as the Millenium Dome- and went for a cafe latte in an interchangeable convenience store. Nowadays, it's difficult to find a decent cup of tea in London.