TREE POST

From Imelda Wubben, The Netherlands
around 2 poetry fragments by M. VASALIS

VASALIS PAINTING, full view and details

A large painting I made for Cathérine Petré around a fragment of poetry by M. VASALIS

«no help can come outside the reach of motherly trees,
they wait till the bird of disaster breaks the shell
from the inside to come out and then they are 2, the shell and the terrible bird, without any connection, just compatible and going together»

(translation GV)

Interesting is that the work on Jung by Theresa Williams puts the bird also in a rather negative light. I think that many contributors on this blog are suddenly «in the same framework of mind».

From birds ...

ATC by Anke van den Berg, Belgium around a fragment of poetry by M. Vasalis.
Her reaction on "Running Wild"! Translation:

"From birds only feathers
or the finest abrasives
of singing or the sound
of dry little feet under the dark rooftop"

RUNNING WILD

A collage I made for Anke van den Berg around a fragment of poetry by M. Vasalis
Translation:
"My eyes became wild women & wandered away
& returned nevertheless to the place where the king came"

A tribute to the Dutch poet M. VASALIS

A mail art work from Cathérine Petré between the collected poems of Vasalis and a biography on Vasalis in one of my book cases.
M. Vasalis (1909-1998) wrote the most gripping and finest, elegant poetry in the Dutch language. She refused to publish poetry any more after world war 2 and the loss of a child. For her a personal loss connected with a general historical one (the holocaust). While Celan and Adorno were debating "if it was still possible to write poems after the extermination camps of the nazis", she answered this by absolute silence and a non publication of her poems. The last poetry book was published after she died (in 2002, a collection of poems under the title "the old coast line") and contains some of the greatest poems I've ever had the privilege to read in my life!

(GV)

DEATH SHOWED ME SMALL BUT INTERESTIING THINGS: THIS IS A NAIL AND THAT'S A ROPE

Large painted envelope around the opening lines of a poem by M. Vasalis, for Cathérine Petré in Belgium