Well, my old diary
has almost had its day
I read it over once more
for beautiful sentences
too beautiful to be lost
I copy them and weave them
together with imagination
with equally beautiful sentences
My experiences seamlessly
fit together with possible events
that I now, years later, imagine
and would have liked to lived
just as Stendhal reworked his
dull notes into a stammering account
of a heavenly experience, dizzy
from looking up at the vaulted ceiling
where the painting, on the contrary
is anchored immutably in the then
still wet lime, entirely real, firsthand
Grandeur, not only in hindsight
Poem 6030 Amsterdam, 2026-05-20 Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle, Grenoble 1783-1842) imagined the palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, blurred vision, (near) fainting, and emotionality, which were later qualified as symptoms of the syndrome named after him Collection: The Yellow House Museum Tribute to: Stendhal
Is this a fairy
tale, this frog a prince, and then,
am I his princess?
Is dit een sprookje,
Ist es ein Märchen,
deze kikker een prins en --
der Frosch ein Prinz, und bin ich --
ben ik zijn prinses?
seine Prinzessin?
Poem H5978 Amsterdam, 2025-10-20 Tree (Wanda Bommer) - 2008 Novel "Boom" - In the book, Boom is the stage name of the 36-year-old singer-guitarist Van Hout Collections: Appearances, Whirligig Scribbler Tribute to: Bommer, Wanda
A writer invents
worlds that will come to an end --
if they are not read.
Een schrijver bedenkt
Ein Autor erschafft
werelden die weer vergaan --
Welten, die untergehen --
als niemand ze leest.
wenn niemand sie liest.
Poem H4792 Amsterdam, 2024-07-21 Grimus (Salman Rushdie) - 1975 Novel (A Simurg(h) ['Thirty birds'] is a Persian legendary creature, an omniscient bird, symbol for someone's world of thought), part 3 Grimus, chapter 55 Collections: Shadows, WriteWiser signage Tribute to: Rushdie, Salman
I'll make up stories,
writing about everything --
that happened to me.
Ik zal verhalen
Ich werde Bücher
verzinnen over alles --
erfinden, über alles --
wat er is gebeurd.
was mir passiert ist.
Poem H3946 Amsterdam, 2023-07-12 The Good Apprentice (Iris Murdoch) - 1985 Novel, chapter 3, part 15 Collections: Longing and Loss, WriteWiser signage Tribute to: Murdoch, Iris
I don't describe life
as it is, rather I live --
by my fantasy.
Schrijvers beschrijven
Ich beschreibe nicht
het leven niet, ze leven --
das Leben, ich erlebe --
naar hun fantasie.
meine Fantasie.
Poem S0872 Amsterdam, 2019-05-22 Letters from Genoa (Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer) - 2016 "Brieven uit Genua", January 12th, 2014 Collection: Palace of the night Tribute to: Pfeijffer, Ilja Leonard