2023 will be the year I will translate most of my work into English.
I will make it all available for free, so if you like my poetry, be sure to
check back because I will post a poem every day from my collection ‘Traktaat of the Sun’.
Today two poems, both from my first book, Karavanserai:
THE DEAD
The dead never fully departed from us.
When we slumber, they slip
into old habits. They count hoarded coin
under the bed, comb their lacquered hair
straight or discard rubbish bags. Everything with
unshakeable routine. We, who are but their
faint memories, lie supine in bed,
ablaze with dreamy fires in our heads
that transport them back home.
When their shadowy thoughts,
which are slight but spare nothing,
falter for a moment with doubt,
they extend their frayed hands
into our dreams
to warm themselves, perchance,
or somehow still cling to belief,
to extinguish this only light they know
until all is dark and sleep presents itself
with open curtains.
Martijn Benders, from: Karavanserai, Nieuw Amsterdam Publishers, 2008
ETERNITY
Eternity has many rivals.
The holidays, for instance.
The primary conduit
for eternity is love.
Stranded
between heaven and hell,
people book each other
unceasingly, but
luckily, boredom offers
a foothold and reveals its
principal shareholder: the sea,
with its splintered bars
like a bar code,
that resists our
hostile takeover.
Martijn Benders, from: Karavanserai, Nieuw Amsterdam Publishers, 2008
