Constellation of the Lyra

The VII World Festival of Poetry "The emigrated Lyra-2015" is held in Paris, Brussels and Liège. I was invited to read in Liège. Poems in Russian, Oekranian, French, Dutch, English, Portuguese and Arabic. Al the poems of each participant ( we were 20 poets) were translated into French and Russian and published in a book with all the poets in alphabetical order. Of course there is also a real constellation of the Lyra. It can be found  between Hercules and the Swan. So we were all between heaven and earth. People came from far away: from Australia, from the USA... Each read in his/her mother tongue with the projection of the translation in French and Russian on a screen behind the reader. Two friends of mine, members of PEN-Flanders were there. Actually, it was Alhadi who had to flee from Sudan who had proposed me to the organizers and his buddy Kaptue from Cameroon of course was there too. They both are incredible performers. Alhadi reads in long drawn sounds in Arabic,  moving his right arm and hand to stress  the fact that one is reading a story, a poem, and telling it so all can see and hear it. Kaptue reads differently, rawer, he tells the story of what happened in Cameroon and having to flee he reeds as a protest, and seeing the poem one understands his feelings. Fred Schywek took a lot of pictures of the event. Clicking on this link will give you a good idea of the diversity in languages and nationalities. The event brought poets together and any time people are brought together and work together that is a great thing. I want to make a special mention of the interpreter Valéry Dvoinikov for his ease and and pleasant interpretations of the languages needed.

American Sign Language and Poetry II

Here you see Dori Vaughn who works in a school as an interpreter/ educational assistant for children who cannot hear, practicing on a text of a poem. When I asked her whether she could sign some poems, she hesitated a moment and said yes. Signing is interpreting. American Sign Language (ASL) is not “English”. So she practiced while I spoke the text and she looked for the best rendering of the image or the concept. She also practiced ‘off the page’. Working from a written text is a job not many interpreters like to do, and poetic language of course is an extra challenge. She also discussed the content of the poem, what I had meant, how it came about. I however wanted to know how she read the poems, because a poem once written, is read and interpreted by the reader and might carry a different weight or connotation. Here you can see that Dori did a great job and added to the beauty of the event of April 30, 2012: desert poetry night.

The desert poetry night

 Desert Poetry night, on April 30th, was the fourth and final leg of the Festival on Tour. We had a good crowd, listening well, showing their appreciation.

We counted 40 people sitting in the changing desert light. The first one to read was Carol Calvillo, with  a poem titled The House of Marie Durant. A great start. Although James Smiths, Jim, started with the intro signed in ASL by Dori, followed by Dan Bishop and the tribute to Johnny Cash. Some songs like Pocahontas and me and Jackson were just played over the loudspeakers but all the other songs Al Brock sang life with his guitar.

Jean Bishop read a poem by Jennielee Bishop, her mother in law: The Cowboy's wife. A fun, yet insightful poem about life on the ranch. Dan read two poems about work on the range, about a mean bull and building fences, written by Judd Bishop his father.

Cooper Gallegos read powerful poetry about living in an Hispanic  neighborhood in an abusive  relationship: bravo for brave and strong poetry. There was also Dori Signing three poems of her choice  from Traces, Annmarie Sauer  reading from Traces and Fred Schywek reading from Felsenleiter with the English translation. And then  10 poets read Global Night Car as a premiere in the USA. Then there was abundant food, excellent potato salad by Mary and a surprise birthday cake offered by Nadine. The next day was the big cleanup and saying goodbye to friends and neighbors... and on the road again.

Today: Desert Poetry Night...

Arizona is celebrating its 100th birthday this year.
Welcome to world poetry days 2012!
April is America's Poetry Month  -  on April the 30th 2012 ( Monday ),
desert poetry night will be held at Annmarie's Old Gas Station right here in Chloride Arizona.
   There will be poetry about people who settled the West: the landscape, the wildlife and the hardships they endured.
   The premiere of the Global Night Car project will be held right here under the Arizona stars... All friends of good music and poetry are welcome.
   There will be an open mike for all poets, right here under the Arizona stars.
   Also there will be a tribute to American legend Johnny Cash celebrating
his 80th birthday. More info: www.world-internet-books.com
*
 *OLD GAS STATION CREW*
CHLORIDE AZ
Tennessee Ave
near famous DIGGER DAVES

desert poetry night

desert poetry night

at Annmarie’s old gas station in Chloride, Monday April 30^th, 6 pm

Two poets, Fred Schywek from Germany and American born Annmarie Sauer, also translate poetry and produce multi-lingual books. Thus European authors can be read in the USA and American poets in Europe.

In the framework of April National Poetry Month, supported by the Academy of American Poets, they decide to organize a desert poetry night in Chloride, Arizona, at Annmarie’s Old Gas Station.

The experimental global night car will be premiered in the USA: it is a collaborative poem by nine poets from different countries and continents. Yet there also is cowboy poetry and work from locals like Jandolin Marks from Dolan Springs will be heard. Also Cooper Gallegos, California, will read from her latest book. Singer/songwriter and local country star Al Brock will perform in the Johnny Cash tribute for his 80 birthday this year. Donna Meyer will offer Chloride limericks. We strive for diversity and openness. Cowboy poetry by Judd Bishop will be read by his son Dan Bishop and Jean Bishop will read from her mother in law’s work, Jennielee Bishop. There is also an open mike.

Fred Schywek will read from Felsenleiter/Rockstairs and from Weiße Mühle/White Mill with a translation in English as a preview for the books to be published in early autumn.

Annmarie Sauer will read from Traces/Sporen in which you’ll find several Cerbat and Chloride landscape inspired poems. Dori Vaughn will perform/interpret three poems of her choice from Traces/Sporen in American Sign Language.

You can follow the developments concerning these readings on:

www.world-internet-books.com

www.poets.org

Bart Stouten's Open Heart presented in den Hopsack

 When the producers of the books are part of the presentation then only the preliminary activities can be documented.
Here Fred Schywek carrying in the books...
 A bit of publicity in the window doesn't hurt.
 And hanging the banner of the traveling Poetry Festival this evening is also part of the producer's job.

 Here poet Bart helps carry in the music stand for his friend Jan Evenepoel

 Sound man Erwin at work and the star of the night checking out the finished book he his holding for the first time. He seems  to be smiling like the cat who ate the canary, also his partner Mark seems to enjoy the special night.

 A wonderful guitar player, a choice of music that was just right for the mood of the night and and the audience. I realized how I missed  hearing the soft twang or thud of the gentle touch of a string. Thanks!

 Poet and musician concentrating, going inward... to come out and be totally present when it matters. The program:
1.  INTRODUCTION - Frank DE VOS
 MUZIEK 1: Jan EVENEPOEL
 2.  POETRY READING 1
OPEN HEARTH OF LANGUAGE - Bart - GENTSE BEGRAFENIS MET FLASHBACK - Bart & Annmarie - POETRY IS… Bart & Fred  - HIMEJI 2004 Annmarie -
MUSIC 2 - JAN EVENEPOEL
3. POETRY READING 2: ATHENS 6 AM - Fred - Bart - HAMA Bart & Annmarie - GEEN VOLLE MANEN MEER (no more full moons) Bart & Fred
MUSIC 3 - Jan EVENEPOEL - Frank DE VOS closes – SUIKERBONEN (Belgian sweets offered when a baby is born -)) Thanks too for a loyal, attentive audience and friends

Now we're on the road again... from E 19 to Route 66...

Muddy roads will be traveling soon but first Bart Stouten's presentation tonight

THAT FEELING

                    Flying.

A feeling of laying in an unmade bed.

Staring at Buddhist sutras

from floor to ceiling

slipping in and out one's consciousness.

Feeling the sutras

keep you alive.

                    The stewardess, a cameo appearance

in dark Chinese whispers, brought coffee,

lukewarm and annoyingly weak with powdered milk

and a glimpse of hauling about her darlings.

Made corny jokes about thick and thin. Her own choice

written on her body. In fluent French.

No idea where it came from. That feeling.

I loved her, briefly, put myself to work

emptied all this thinness.

                    Waiting, with sleep and in-flight magazine,

for better pastimes.

                    It came. High above the gold coast,

which reminded my neighbor of the complicated timing

of coming into the world elsewhere: mom's returning

from a trip to Papua New Guinea, her desire

to birth him in Australia, his first scream

in a Lockheed Hercules en route. And how he

two years ago – his pousse café a fait divers

for Quantas – was gripped by a fear of flying so intense

that he nailed to the floor, watched how the plane left

without him, to yet another continent.

                    ...in an unmade bed... staring at

Buddhist sutras...

                    For me no alcohol.

Vascular problem requiring an understanding smile,

so thinks the stewardess.

*
8 pm: in den Hopsack, Grote Pieter Pot straat, Antwerp, Belgium

Roger's Lighthouse Lichthaus

Here Roger Nupie poses with Adriaan in front of the world poetry day's festival poster on the Black Panter Gallery in Antwerp. Of course the title refers to Virginia Woolf just as the Poem The waves.
 On the picture he checks the poster made for him

 

The Waves

The water watches

and waits. The sea

waves in.

Longing

yearns

its leaden lure.

The hug

is the fear of

my double devil                       

Without end this wrenching

away from the tide

of my body.

 *
Of course there is also a German translation.

Preparations for a poetry presentation

 After translating, proofreading with the authors and the lay out follows the printing and shipping of the books. Since we presented work of three poets we made little bundles of the three books with colorful, joyous ribbons.

 And yes, poetry for the world for books arriving on Unesco's world poetry day on March 21.

Then the producer/ translator/ poet, founder of world internet books Fred Schywek carries the result of months and months of work to the Gallery De Zwarte Panter. Here Annie Reniers is doing a sound checkwhile host Adriaan checks lights, helps with putting up chairs, provides a table for the books and even came up with a blue money box. The last words of her book Buchstabenlicht - Letters van licht- Letters of light is the title of her book.

the step out of time

brings us back

to the immediacy

of resistance and resurrection

a form appears

of branches of air

magnanimous in meeting

and silence

silence cuts a road

rivers flow out of an Eden 

fires rage through centuries

for an egg of warmth

sketch

drawn after no one’s image

unadulterated

in letters of light

Presentation of Light traces in De zwarte panter: Three books of Poetry

 Three poets who have known each other for a long time decided to present the heir new books together in The black Panter Gallery. It is a magical 15th century chapel where art in all its forms is celebrated. The host is Adriaan Raemdonck, ambassador of cultural life in Antwerp.

Fred reading the German translation of Annie Yet the road to a presentation is a long one. First of all the producer of the books Fred Schywek, poet and responsible for the translation from Dutch into German and Annmarie Sauer, poet and responsible for the translations into English have to feel comfortable in working hand in hand with the poets.The translations are proofread together with the authors and deep discussions arise. 


In Annie Reniers' Buchstabenlicht - Letters van licht - Letters of light it might have been about the philosophical connotation of a word or nod to one or other art theory. With Roger Nupie's Lighthouse - Lichthaus it was about choices in the level of 'naughtiness' and comma's. Traces - Sporen is a bilingual book translated by the author herself.
 One will note that in the translation of the works of others she is loyal, yet in the translations of her own work she makes choices that can lead to quiet a difference between the two languages. Then the lay out, the page numbers... The producers job.

Then a concept is worked out for the presentation and yes, it worked. The audience was warm and listened intently, we had help from friends Unciya and Hakate to man the book stand. friends worked the bar, brought the drinks and Bram Goots and Maya filmed the event. Thanks to all on the international poetry day!!

© sms:foto duisburg/rhein 2012 - picture with Fred by Ken Post

Job Degenaar-Lucienne Stassaert-Fred Schywek in salon 12b

 Lucienne Stassaert started the evening with an introduction to the poetess Andrée Chedid whose work she has been translating from French into Dutch. The love of nature and landscapes, the positive outlook on life, Caïro and Paris as the two cities with a stream which where her home, all that was a medicine, an antidote in a difficult for Lucienne. The translation is vibrant and alive.

Fred Schywek read from Weisse Mühle to be published in 2 or 3 languages in autumn. His poetry has strong imaginary and plays on language. Love and loving and love lost and longing are the theme in this book.

During the break Goulash soup was served and Rice pudding with apples ( thanks Rose!) Then followed Job Degenaar with a well chosen reading from his latest book Ich bin- I am, read in its three languages: Dutch, German and English. He is a traveler with an eye for detail, finding the beauty in melancholy, seeing the deep and fascinating humanity in others. Job performed several traditional ballads delighting us all. I thank the poetry loving friends who came and shared a warm and intimate evening of beauty in four languages.

 

Proofreading Ich bin -I am

Poet, producer and translator into German Fred Schywek proofreading with Job Degenaar, president of Writers in Prison Committee The Netherlands. Both combing through the text, catching the extra space between two words, a colon to be removed, explaning the choices, the difference in reception in the other language... and coming to a conclusion together.

A thorough interesting process of cooperative shared responsibility. The solution found contentment is on their faces. From trilingual Ich Bin I am

Riverbank in grey

Maybe girls from Japan are needed here

three in lilac, pink, white, under a parasol of reed

on narrow feet over pale sand

the wind rose, the water rustled

and clouds tumbled through the blue

as if they still had the whole earth to cross

and where in the distance the river dreams away

streamed the gold of Buddha

over the run down hearts

Traces Sporen

 

Traces as poetry, encounters, landscapes, sudden insights, as loss and loving again, as longing. In this book language explores fragmented places of belonging. 

*

Annmarie Sauer is a poetess of few words, limiting herself to the essence; what she writes is intense and felt deeply. Without frills and sure she paints with words. For her no parlando, and certainly no baroque. Nowhere does she make concessions to language. She is engaged and empathic and catches, seemingly effortless all movements and fluctuations of moods and confides them to paper in English and Dutch.

Rose Vandewalle

 The presentation is March 23rd, 8PM: De Zwarte Panter, Hoogstraat 76, Antwerp, together with Roger Nupie and Annie Reniers 

All is given

by water & wind

ice & fire

now till in the greyest hour

always all is in its place

perfect unruliness

battered

predestined in

the movement of time

coincidence

just as I

*

Alles is gegeven

door water & wind

ijs & vuur

nu tot in het grijste uur

altijd alles op zijn plaats

volmaakte ongeregeldheid

verweerd

voorbeschikt in

de beweging van de tijd           

toeval

net als ik

Traces/Sporen, world internet books, publisher Fred Schywek

Poetry as Insurgent Art

Follows an extract from a message from Ms Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO: On this World Poetry Day 2010, let us recall that poetry is a universal country in which peoples may meet through words of all colors, rhythms and musicality. Words that, regardless of the language from which they blossomed, reach out far for a light that captures the very essence of the human being, the dignity of each person. UNESCO, committed to its mandate to fully promote the democratic principles of dignity, equality and mutual respect perceives poetry as a vital resource.

Yes poetry is alive and kicking but nit really thanks to Unesco, but thanks to the pets writing, reading, performing, small publisher spreading the words of poets, the translators who build bridges, further understanding. That is why from one day we organize a poetry festival starting March 17 in salon 12b with Job Degenaar and his book ICH BIN * I AM. Assisting poets will also have time to read and share their work. The activity o the actual poetry day is still being organized. Then the second event is on March 23 three poets, diverse in their way of writing will present each a book in Gallery The Black Panter in Antwerp: Annie Reniers with a trilingual book (Dutch, German and English): Letters of Light. Her reading is followed by Roger Nupie with  the also trilingual book. The last pet is Annmarie Sauer with a bi-lingual book Traces/Sporen. March 29 in the literary café den Hopsack in Antwerp it will be the Bart Stouten party with the trilingual book Open Heart. All books produced by poet Fred Schywek. April is poetry month in USA, so while being there we'll have a Desert Poetry Night with guest from San Francisco. We do all this to give a voice to more poets, to let people hear diverse forms of writing. Yet also because the Unesco system is rather cumbersome to work with as independent artists and to claim poetry as an insurgent art:

Poetry as Insurgent Art  Lawrence Ferlinghetti
 

I am signaling you through the flames.

The North Pole is not where it used to be.

Manifest Destiny is no longer manifest.

Civilization self-destructs.

Nemesis is knocking at the door.

What are poets for, in such an age?
What is the use of poetry?

The state of the world calls out for poetry to save it.

If you would be a poet, create works capable of answering the challenge of apocalyptic times, even if this meaning sounds apocalyptic.

You are Whitman, you are Poe, you are Mark Twain, you are Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay, you are Neruda and Mayakovsky and Pasolini, you are an American or a non-American, you can conquer the conquerors with words....

The Festival

Last Saturday was the day filled with beauty and warmth, words whispered and shouted, poets of the page and great performers. We worked in 4 languages and the audience got it. We had a great crowd, appreciative and warm. We found help for letting people in, for the bar, for a bookstand of the authors. There was a table  of the writers in prison comittee and a Free Leonard Peltier flag. The poets who were featured alone read well and the groups that created a performance created a ballance that ballanced and lead to enjoyment and thoughtfulness. The anti war and pro peace section was an imposing statement in its beauty and strength.

The next day two of our invited  poets- devorah major and Olivier Cousin- were invited to another literature festival. They didn't think about the translation, so we had to pick up the slack of others, which we gladly did for our two poet friends. And then  on monday night there was a small Barbershop reading which probably will evolve into something bigger. Devorah enjoyed the old countryside hotel, near the Rhine and we filmed her speaking, performing some poems. Then  The next day we dropped her of  at the airport and she is now in Sarajevo at a Festival.

You'll find the slideshow and many more items at world-internet-books.com

Now the administative stuff has to be taken care of and the books with the great poetry in several languages have to be produced.

Susan Birkeland was honored end remembered... Her poem was read by Fred Schywek and myself in 

German and Dutch.