Archive for the ‘Literature’ Category

This week the Iranian government hung one of my fellow countrymen because of unclear reasons. I decided to write a poem about it when i saw this picture, so here it is. This work is free of copyright so you can reproduce it wherever you want.

Let’s talk about the guy in the safari shirt.

This woman named Zahra was hanged
because she drank alcohol, or protested the government, it doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter to them and it doesn’t matter to us.
Forget about Zahra. Focus on the chameleon in her hand,

can you see how it took the color of the street, can you see
the shopping bags, the guy in the safari shirt?

Let’s talk about the guy in the safari shirt.
He cannot be anything else

than a guy with a belly
in a too small safari shirt
even if he tries very hard

there will always be
a camera like this one
exposing him, in a way

he’s hanging just like Zahra was, it’s just that
he never drank alcohol, as far as we know,
and never protested anything either

and if it wasn’t for a stupid poet like me
no one would have ever noticed his demise

a thought that brings him great comfort
on a cold, distant evening in a room close
to where you are sitting now.

Martijn 29-01-2011

The Craft

You have found a stone.
But it is not your stone.
So you keep polishing and polishing.
The craft, you say, is to create a flawless stone
one indistinguishably remarkable.

But it’s not your craft, is it?
It is the found beast of an old tradition.
True, there are worse things in this world
than a couple of polished stones.

One day you will stretch out your hand
and offer us your perfect stone.
It will glow, in the middle of your palm
like a star only dreamed of by puppets.

You will stand in front of the mob,
expect nothing less than a crucifixion
or, at least, to meet the original stone
receiving its autograph on your corpse.

But no one moves. The crowds stare
only reminds you of the desert of birth.
You, who owns an invisible star, are
now at mercy of a nursing wasteland.

Square one, home of the creator.
But it’s not your square, is it?

It’s been around. In all its hidden glory.
In all its hidden glory. It’s been around.

Martijn 18-01-2011

Hi folks,

For a while you heard nothing from me because I was busy with various projects. As I have already told you I am working on a kind of tetralogy, and already working on those projects they keep changing under my eyes – it is far from crystal clear how the tetralogy will look like, what exactly it will consist of and whether it will even be a tetralogy as such.

Tetralogy

As it looks now, the series include:

1. A novel that will be called “Bilderberg”.
2. A collection of poems with a yet unknown title.
3. A philosophy book named “Holokapital’.
4. A CD with electrorap in Dutch
5. A CD with arrangements of Rachmaninov.

I think I currently about 25% of project completion is done – but I would not dare predict how long it takes for the entire project is completed. As always for me I definitely do not want to put out mediocre products, which in this case a difficult requirement, because to excel in four different genres is by no means easy. However, I am convinced that I will succeed to create a very special package from this tetralogy. Currently, I put the emphasis on the novel, since the poems already quite far advanced and I have made more than 400 songs in one year, enough material to distil things out later.

Turing national poetry contest

I also have two or three poems in the top 100 of the Turing national poetry contest. The exact number is unclear because there is a poem in the top 100 songs of the same title as a poem that I have sent, but with a different registration number. It’s possible that someone sent a poem with the same title, or there is an error in the numeration. In the former case I’m at least represented with two poems in the top 100.

I have sent the organization when it became known the following mail:

Dear Maria Böggemann

Martijn Benders.

And a few days later in the mail, after consultation with my standin:

Marieke, this is Bart, that’s my standin when I do not finish high enough.
Bart says he he’s disabled on the 26th. Could you please reschedule the event.
That’d be great, thanks.

I received a response only today. It was apparently impossible to reschedule the event. Bit weird of course. So much went wrong already in this contest so far. I have sent them the following email:

Dear Marieke Böggemann,

Martijn Benders

Fund of Criticism

Positive news on the Fund of Criticism: that’s going to go ahead. I have already designed a logo for a website and within about a month the Fun will be operational.

The Fund of Criticism

Stop it, Ron.
Stop torturing my website it did
nothing wrong. It isn’t even a poem
just a bunch of digits
in decent form.

I know, I know
you’ve been on the barricades yourself
and you have thousands of precious books
on your shelves but that’s no excuse
so stop it, Ron, my website
is very strong anyway.

My website will never succumb.
So you better give it up, Ron.

If everyone did like you, if everyone
would cherrypick poetry
then nothing, nothing at all
would be new and you know it

so stop it, Ron, stop the debut
of yourself at the expense
of my website. Stop it. Now.

Martijn Benders, 05-08-2010

The Open Air Library on the highest mountain of Buyukada is once again open. Kerem aka Argos Libertos managed to open it again after the police forced him to shut it down last year but they were no match to his persistance. Kerem cured well from his jump from 3 high in the centre of Istanbul and could walk well again after being operated, first half year with help of a stick. His library has now signed works of dutch poets Arjen Duinker, Tonnus Oosterhoff, K.Schippers and Alfred Schaffer who by means of Bart van der Pligt were kind enough to donate books. When you’re in Istanbul you should surely stop by and please bring a book or two!

The Kazakhstan born graphic artist Serik Kulmeshkenov is one of the few artists that keeps the ex Libris craft alive, a special genre within the arts. Ex Libris are special book seals people use to personify their person book collection. The works of Serik Kulmeshkenov are excellent examples of why this craft should never disappear:

Ex libris Natalya Chebotar / size 90mm x 90mm, 2005.

Ex libris Sergey and Irina Khrapov / size 80mm x 105mm, 2008

Ex libris Paul Elliott / size 65mm x 82mm, 2008.

These and many more magnificent Ex libris works you can view at the website of Serik Kulmeshkenov. Every serious book collector should have such an emblem, in my opinion.