E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

The poet can’t help writing poetry and time can’t help taking him for granted. Rest in peace, dear friend. – Benno Barnard Terribly sad news. The brilliant Dutch poet Hans Van de Waarsenburg  has died. I loved him. He was brilliant, kind, generous, funny, and a great friend to poets world-wide. Dutch poet Hans van de Waarsenburg was born in Helmond in1943, and has died in 2015, June 15. He published his first collection of poems, Gedichten (Poems), 50 years ago, in 1965. His collection De vergrijzing (The graying) was awarded the prestigious Jan Campert Prize for Poetry in 1973. In March 2004 he received the first Municipal Award of the Helmond Town Council for his entire work. Between 1997 and 2000 he was chairman of the PEN Centre of the Netherlands. In 1997 he became chairman of The Maastricht International Poetry Nights - an impressive biannual international poetry festival. In 2013 Eyewear published his Selected Poems in English, translated by Peter Boreas , The ...

Menno Wigman, Dutch poet I was very fortunate to meet, and read with, several excellent poets from the Netherlands, at the Maastricht International Poetry Nights 2010 (MIPN), October 28-30 - as well run, lively, and serious a poetry event (or series of events) as I have ever participated in - and surely the most supportive.  I read with, among others, Breyten Bretenbach , Ilya Kaminsky , and Pura Lopez Colome .  The nights generate a sense of community, and well-being, and interchange, with the truly international poets that are summoned to the delightful old-world town of Maastricht, that small Southern narrow bit of Holland that is predominantly Catholic and has been in disputed territory for many of its centuries. For me, the biggest treat was getting to meet leading Dutch poets, including Menno Wigman , Willem van Toorn , Mark Boog , and Maria Barnas .  Wigman, a true dandy, delighted me when he cut his pocket kerchief in half over dinner Saturday with large scis...