Martijn Benders, a renowned Dutch poet and mycophilosopher, has authored seventeen books including an extensive 712-page collection of absurdist poetry entitled ‘Tract of the Sun’. Gaining notoriety for his irreverent approach to Dutch poetry awards, Benders found himself among the first writers ostracised by the New Woke movement, which he dubbed  ‘Woke with Jesus’.

Benders argues that the realm of modern literature is governed by the academia, an establishment that has been in decline for over a century, producing increasingly lacklustre gatekeepers who operate within a system rife with religious prejudice and  devoid of a tangible secularist structure. This has led to a distorted and pedantic bias that Benders has termed Kinderreich, which he believes originated within Gombrovicz’s Ferdydurke.

The Woke movement according to Benders is not leftist at all, but a dumbed down emulation of such by a conglomerate of conservative and destructive forces operating through the phenomenon of ‘banding’, with the hidden intention of turning this planet into an even worse dystopia. Benders, who has identified as an anarchist all his life, can’t see these people as ‘leftists’, nor does he have any allegiance to so-called ‘right-wing alternatives’.

Benders’ skills as a poet cannot be ignored. His absurdist verse offers an invigorating departure from conventional poetry, challenging readers to venture beyond the confines of the ordinary. His anthology, Tract of the Sun, is a testament to his ability as a poet and is essential reading for anyone with a taste for contemporary verse.

He has amassed an impressive body of laudatory reviews, conspicuously absent from those chosen by the very establishments he criticises to ‘play the talent’. It is this glaring discrepancy that further underlines the need for a more equitable and unbiased approach to recognising and celebrating poetic talent in the literary world. 

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