A
friend and colleague Karel Sergen launched this fun and serious
project. Bar Van Loo had sugested to find one's own audience for an
original selection of thirty years of poetry. So Karel mailed out an
extended overview of his work and asked his friends poets to choose one
poem and write a short commentary like one would send a tweet. The
publisher
P Leo Peeraer of 'Uitgevery
P' accepted the challenge
to publish this book, and unbeknown to all the poets who send in their
favorite poem they were considered co-authors of the book and received
it as a gift. The celebration of this project was the reason we drove
with four people from Antwerp to Saint Remy-Geest, the beautiful village
just over the language border. I was again impressed by the place. I
was even more impressed by the careful preparation of the program for
the day. Karel is form the Dutch peaking part of Belgium and lives in
the French speaking part since quite a while. I was impressed that the
local dignitaries were bilingual. The authors speaking and reading were
bilingual too and so is the book. Bernard De Coen, in close
collaboration with Karel made a great and wonderful translation into
French.
Everything breathes beauty and caring and even a deluge couldn't stop
the festivities. In three different spots the poets who had chosen their
'favorite' read it for the audience. Everybody had a great time. I felt
hopeful because of the inclusiveness of the whole day. On the picture
right you see Karel (left) and Bart (right). French and Dutch, Japanese
and English, all together. Hilde Keteleer is reading and I must thank
her for letting me use her pictures. I love the attention to detail, the
edible flowers, the great people there and the beautiful together of
poetry and language.Even old chairs became poetic objects with a haiku.
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