This video is about the 2011 poetry festival in Haarlem.
Yesterday, there was a big poetry event in the city center of Haarlem, the Netherlands.
Over 90 poets participated.
Before arriving at the event, I crossed the bridge over the Nieuwegracht. On the bridge, posters of the Socialist Party for the European elections on 4 June.
Just below the bridge, an Egyptian goose, sitting on a “ducdalf” in the water.
The poets are divided into nine groups of about 10 people each. For each group there is an inner city location to read their poems.
Our group of nine people is in a seventeenth century house along the Spaarne river. It is inhabited, but the inhabitants welcome the poets and the audience today.
First, Wim Groenhart. His subjects this afternoon included ears and a dragon.
As second, Rose Rodriques Pereira, with love poems. Later, also about ecology.
Then, Csaba Cserep, with poems about his native Hungary and other subjects.
After a pause, Ada Mol, a poetess from Zandvoort, with a poem about spring.
Then, Gerrit Venema, about Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
Then, Angela Boogaard, who is not only a poetess, but also a visual artist. Her subjects included visual arts and the situation of women in society.
Then, two poems by yours truly. A short one about a ladybug. And a long one about Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet.
Then, Martin Janse, about parachute jumping. Later, about a moth, a worm, and an ant.
Finally in this first round, Peter van den Berg. With poems about the sea, and about a lottery.
Then, all the poets get two other rounds. Sometimes interrupted by accordeon music by Roelof Ruis.
As I was walking back, and crossing the Nieuwegracht bridge, two Egyptian geese flying low across the water.
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