Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Hans Verhagen

PLUNGED BLONDE

1 Break-neck speed

I don’t get this place at all
We live here to our heart’s content
while in the eye of the stillness on the corner
disaster surely lurks for an unforeseen event

I am a child of these shores,
and I tread hesitatingly
the crooked path where after the last bend,
plunged blonde in mud bath,
the love of my life lies waiting patiently
and it does not occur to me to share my happiness with her

The only balance here is losing it
Love is politics too
From a razor-sharp dilemma dancing on the edge
(no hold, no blade)
I see how she with break-neck speed shoots through
the quicksand on her sledge

So here I stand gawping, by the silent ravine
hearing snippets of the dreaded lizard’s song
For god’s sake, how far from home can a goddess go?
Even now I cannot live without this sense of loss


2 Love

No rolling stone came from afar to guard us,
she vanished, I fell apart into a vinegar-red head
whose included body had just been thrown away
as the spirits of the time used to say

From borderless passion underground love echoed
through burrows caves cathedrals where we wept –
worn into crevices through the feedback of our sorrow
Streamlined white-coats flogging sarcophagi
but she refused to be adored and I? neither

For someone on his own accord having sunk so deep
I still produced a fair amount of reckless passion
‘Expose yourself openly even to those not into you’
But if all fires are smothered beforehand,
how can anyone properly burst into flames?

Had the bodiless head long forgotten
or did it never even know
what it had promised to the little girls?
They too have grown


3 World

Vanes on planes and pennants on the boat
show my desperation to all corners of the globe
I brace myself against the railings,
scrape myself up against the memories coming from behind
of everything that went wrong, but nothing did go wrong

Things went as they’d happened since god knows when
in every as yet unpaid paradise
when more than one man in a three-piece suit
sets more than one foot on shore
Everyone seems to have his price; I just don’t understand this place

Plunged into mud she throws me her veils,
I am enthralled by what they reveal,
she’s everything I ever hoped for;
I come alive as her male

To see her set in my very own blood-red sky
beat me with abandonment
The world turned on in mega-regret;
we sailed into the year of the komodo dragon

GEDOMPELD BLOND

GEDOMPELD BLOND

1 Noodgang

Ik snap niets van deze plek
We leven hier naar hartelust
terwijl het ongeluk toch in het oog van de windstilte op de hoek
ligt te loeren op een blinde vlek

Ik ben een kind van deze kust,
ik betreed met aarzelschreden
het kronkelpad waar na de laatste bocht,
gedompeld blond in modderbad,
de liefde van mijn leven wacht
en het komt niet in me op om mijn geluk met haar te delen

Er is geen ander evenwicht dan wankel
Ook liefde doet aan politiek
Van een messcherp dilemma balancerend op de snede
(geen houvast, geen lemmet)
zie ik hoe zij met een noodgang op haar slede
door het drijfzand schiet

Terwijl ik daar te gapen sta aan het zwijgende ravijn
hoor ik flarden van het lied van de gevreesde hagedis
Hoe ver van huis kan een godin in godsnaam zijn?
Ik kan nu al niet meer zonder dit gemis


2 Liefde

Geen zwerfsteen kwam van verre om ons te behoeden,
zij verdween, ik viel uiteen in een azijnrood hoofd
waarvan het meegeleverd lichaam nonchalant was afgeworpen
zoals de tijdgeest ooit gebood

Vanuit grenzeloze passie onderaards galmde de liefde
door holen grotten rotsen kathedralen waar wij treurden-
in leemten uitgesleten door de feedback van verdriet
Gestroomlijnde gewitjasten die met sarcofagen leurden
maar zij wilde niet verheerlijkt worden en ik? ook niet

Voor iemand die op eigen kracht zo ver was weggezakt
genereerde ik nog redelijk veel rücksichtslose driften
‘Geef je onomwonden bloot ook aan wie je niet ziet zitten’
Maar als elk vuur van tevoren wordt gedoofd,
hoe kan iemand naar behoren fikken?

Was het lichaamloze hoofd allang vergeten
of heeft het nooit geweten
wat het aan de kleine meisjes had beloofd?
Die zijn nu ook al groot


3 Wereld

De vanen op de vliegtuigen en de wimpels aan de boot
dragen mijn ontreddering in elke windrichting
Ik zet mij schrap tegen de railing,
mij samenschrapend tegen achter mij oprukkende herinnering
aan alles wat er mis ging, maar er ging niets mis

Het ging zoals het zich voltrekt sinds mensenheugenis
in elk nog onbezoldigd paradijs
als meer dan één man in driedelig grijs
er meer dan één voet aan de grond zet
Iedereen hier heeft zijn prijs; ik begrijp niets van deze plek

Gedompeld in de modder werpt zij mij haar sluiers toe,
ik raak verslingerd aan wat die onthullen,
zij is alles wat ik wensen kan;
ik kom tot leven als haar man

Haar in mijn bloedeigen avondrood zien ondergaan
versloeg mij met verlatenheid
De wereld rolde door in megaspijt;
we zijn aangeland in het jaar van de komodovaraan
Close

PLUNGED BLONDE

1 Break-neck speed

I don’t get this place at all
We live here to our heart’s content
while in the eye of the stillness on the corner
disaster surely lurks for an unforeseen event

I am a child of these shores,
and I tread hesitatingly
the crooked path where after the last bend,
plunged blonde in mud bath,
the love of my life lies waiting patiently
and it does not occur to me to share my happiness with her

The only balance here is losing it
Love is politics too
From a razor-sharp dilemma dancing on the edge
(no hold, no blade)
I see how she with break-neck speed shoots through
the quicksand on her sledge

So here I stand gawping, by the silent ravine
hearing snippets of the dreaded lizard’s song
For god’s sake, how far from home can a goddess go?
Even now I cannot live without this sense of loss


2 Love

No rolling stone came from afar to guard us,
she vanished, I fell apart into a vinegar-red head
whose included body had just been thrown away
as the spirits of the time used to say

From borderless passion underground love echoed
through burrows caves cathedrals where we wept –
worn into crevices through the feedback of our sorrow
Streamlined white-coats flogging sarcophagi
but she refused to be adored and I? neither

For someone on his own accord having sunk so deep
I still produced a fair amount of reckless passion
‘Expose yourself openly even to those not into you’
But if all fires are smothered beforehand,
how can anyone properly burst into flames?

Had the bodiless head long forgotten
or did it never even know
what it had promised to the little girls?
They too have grown


3 World

Vanes on planes and pennants on the boat
show my desperation to all corners of the globe
I brace myself against the railings,
scrape myself up against the memories coming from behind
of everything that went wrong, but nothing did go wrong

Things went as they’d happened since god knows when
in every as yet unpaid paradise
when more than one man in a three-piece suit
sets more than one foot on shore
Everyone seems to have his price; I just don’t understand this place

Plunged into mud she throws me her veils,
I am enthralled by what they reveal,
she’s everything I ever hoped for;
I come alive as her male

To see her set in my very own blood-red sky
beat me with abandonment
The world turned on in mega-regret;
we sailed into the year of the komodo dragon

PLUNGED BLONDE

1 Break-neck speed

I don’t get this place at all
We live here to our heart’s content
while in the eye of the stillness on the corner
disaster surely lurks for an unforeseen event

I am a child of these shores,
and I tread hesitatingly
the crooked path where after the last bend,
plunged blonde in mud bath,
the love of my life lies waiting patiently
and it does not occur to me to share my happiness with her

The only balance here is losing it
Love is politics too
From a razor-sharp dilemma dancing on the edge
(no hold, no blade)
I see how she with break-neck speed shoots through
the quicksand on her sledge

So here I stand gawping, by the silent ravine
hearing snippets of the dreaded lizard’s song
For god’s sake, how far from home can a goddess go?
Even now I cannot live without this sense of loss


2 Love

No rolling stone came from afar to guard us,
she vanished, I fell apart into a vinegar-red head
whose included body had just been thrown away
as the spirits of the time used to say

From borderless passion underground love echoed
through burrows caves cathedrals where we wept –
worn into crevices through the feedback of our sorrow
Streamlined white-coats flogging sarcophagi
but she refused to be adored and I? neither

For someone on his own accord having sunk so deep
I still produced a fair amount of reckless passion
‘Expose yourself openly even to those not into you’
But if all fires are smothered beforehand,
how can anyone properly burst into flames?

Had the bodiless head long forgotten
or did it never even know
what it had promised to the little girls?
They too have grown


3 World

Vanes on planes and pennants on the boat
show my desperation to all corners of the globe
I brace myself against the railings,
scrape myself up against the memories coming from behind
of everything that went wrong, but nothing did go wrong

Things went as they’d happened since god knows when
in every as yet unpaid paradise
when more than one man in a three-piece suit
sets more than one foot on shore
Everyone seems to have his price; I just don’t understand this place

Plunged into mud she throws me her veils,
I am enthralled by what they reveal,
she’s everything I ever hoped for;
I come alive as her male

To see her set in my very own blood-red sky
beat me with abandonment
The world turned on in mega-regret;
we sailed into the year of the komodo dragon
Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds
Lira fonds
Versopolis
J.E. Jurriaanse
Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
Elise Mathilde Fonds
Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot
Veerhuis
VDM
Partners
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