NEDERLAND OH NEDERLAND !!!

Recto Verso collages by Renee Wagemans from the Netherlands. Stunning!

NEST ON THE SIMMER

Set of 4 contributions by John Bennett, USA.
I like the Memento Mori approach.

BRIDAL BALLADS

3 drawings from Daniel de Culla from Spain. He added a long personal "no more love poem". Starting point was a quote from The Bridal Ballad by Edgar Allan Poe:
... For I dream I know not how
And my soul is sorely shaken
Lest an evil step be taken
Lest the dead who is forsaken
May not be happy now

ANNE BRADSTREET (1612 - 1672)

Guido,

We all come from and return to someplace for some reason.

Anne Bradstreet, one of the first American poets, was among the wave of seventeenth century English Puritans emigrating to America to escape religious intolerance in England though her poetry was published in England and not in America in her lifetime due to intolerance for education for women by the Puritans in America. She endured harsh living conditions, diseases, 8 childbirths, fire, homelessness and intolerance to emerge as one of the first American poets in the seventeenth century.

David Stone, USA

PS
Reference: John Berryman (poet of The Dream Songs) wrote also a long poem titled; Homage to Mistress Bradstreet.

PROLOGUE
A poem by Anne Bradstreet

1 To sing of Wars, of Captains, and of Kings,
2 Of Cities founded, Common-wealths begun,
3 For my mean Pen are too superior things;
4 Or how they all, or each their dates have run,
5 Let Poets and Historians set these forth.
6 My obscure lines shall not so dim their worth.

7 But when my wond'ring eyes and envious heart
8 Great Bartas' sugar'd lines do but read o'er,
9 Fool, I do grudge the Muses did not part
10 'Twixt him and me that over-fluent store.
11 A Bartas can do what a Bartas will
12 But simple I according to my skill.

13 From School-boy's tongue no Rhet'ric we expect,
14 Nor yet a sweet Consort from broken strings,
15 Nor perfect beauty where's a main defect.
16 My foolish, broken, blemished Muse so sings,
17 And this to mend, alas, no Art is able,
18 'Cause Nature made it so irreparable.

19 Nor can I, like that fluent sweet-tongued Greek
20 Who lisp'd at first, in future times speak plain.
21 By Art he gladly found what he did seek,
22 A full requital of his striving pain.
23 Art can do much, but this maxim's most sure:
24 A weak or wounded brain admits no cure.

25 I am obnoxious to each carping tongue
26 Who says my hand a needle better fits.
27 A Poet's Pen all scorn I should thus wrong,
28 For such despite they cast on female wits.
29 If what I do prove well, it won't advance,
30 They'll say it's stol'n, or else it was by chance.

31 But sure the antique Greeks were far more mild,
32 Else of our Sex, why feigned they those nine
33 And poesy made Calliope's own child?
34 So 'mongst the rest they placed the Arts divine,
35 But this weak knot they will full soon untie.
36 The Greeks did nought but play the fools and lie.

37 Let Greeks be Greeks, and Women what they are.
38 Men have precedency and still excel;
39 It is but vain unjustly to wage war.
40 Men can do best, and Women know it well.
41 Preeminence in all and each is yours;
42 Yet grant some small acknowledgement of ours.

43 And oh ye high flown quills that soar the skies,
44 And ever with your prey still catch your praise,
45 If e'er you deign these lowly lines your eyes,
46 Give thyme or Parsley wreath, I ask no Bays.
47 This mean and unrefined ore of mine
48 Will make your glist'ring gold but more

ZIEN

Hij ziet haar zien en zegt
nachtvreugde, lepellief, briefpapier, vloeibad,
wentelwolk, citruslicht, circusdief, hongerbed

Zij ziet hem zien en zegt
waterslag, spijkerzacht, roomsoes, sneeuwman
bang behangpapier, naaktslak, winterpit, balplezier

Zij zien mekaar zo graag
Hebben wederzijdse woorden lief
Likken speels de wonden van de tijd
Et oui, le temps d’aimer est arrivé!

Zeezucht fluisterde zij
Zuchtzee beaamde hij.

Guido Vermeulen, Belgium
Poem around a woodcut by Sofie Vangor's Le temps de l'amour