Wednesday 13 April 2016

Anneke Brassinga - 'Denkend aan Eliot ga ik in rook op' in English

Thinking of Eliot I go up in smoke

Do I dare disturb the universe? What a question,
for one of those ancient women gathering
fuel in vacant lots. There is no returning,

only the present, with a growing burden of garnered
past. Thunder and rubies become garlic and
sapphire – mud sets, clots around your churning

in my ground. Cool springs nowhere in sight;
every voice withers like the stuttering of the nightingale
but what’s been uttered remains, repeats

forever and forever differently the message
of the rabid, persisting, unquenchable
creeping fire.

To see the original poem, go to here

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