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audible just - ten poems
Short introduction - more to follow
Sometimes you can trace footsteps in the snow but when spring comes and the river flows again, that white surface vanishes and new sounds become audible. It is easy to imagine Germain Droogenbroodt's poems are like meditations. They happen in time and yet are timeless, that is although located in time somewhere prior to entering a different material world. Significant is that he relates to conversations with the hereafter while at the same time he refers to mediations when not on a road, then in the Himalayas. That means he travels light and reflects the counterlight. Translated into sound and rhythms, there is this sober note to ensure the scratching of the pen on the paper can wait till the poem comes. Thus mediatation is an exercise in patience. Kant would call it the art of drawing out and letting something unfold with good questions, but insofar as here poetry turns to philosophy, things are encountered which exist although 'beyond recognition'. So while things can disappear and reappear just like those things floating in the water now swamped over by waves, one possible motive is the resurrection of poetry. And in so doing, he comes close to Hölderlin's concept of an all embracing nature otherwise known as that other part of the soul often described in non audible words since drowned in silence. The latter is reflected by Celan, another source of inspiration for Germain Droogenbroodt.
Hatto Fischer
22.9.2012
HOMAGE
to and after Hans Faverey
Seldom has the defenceless swan
even a little in common
with the defenceless swan which moves
beyond recognition, beyond the horizon.
Not the ship, but the dolphin
swims ahead, swims far in front of
the ship, until he, tired of swimming
in front of the ship, disappears in the waves.
And thus it will happen:
that he lifts the oars
smoothes the winds out of the sails,
merges with the water
and becomes soft swell
thus resurrecting in the poem.
from: “Conversation with the hereafter”
Germain Droogenbroodt
LIFE
Like an ephemeral flower
like a handful of snow
which for a moment glitters in the sun
and melts
slowly seeps away
merges with
and again becomes
-earth.
from: “The Road”
Germain Droogenbroodt
DAWN
Slowly
the way a poem writes itself
daybreak comes into being
from nothing
disposes of silence
and brings light
everywhere arises green
provision for the sun
which from the earth
removes no other darkness
but the night.
from: Counterlight
Germain Droogenbroodt
EAGLE
The ravens fly in swarms
the eagle flies alone
Luchino Visconti
the eagle flies
so close to heaven
lonely
as the poet
who patiently waits
the coming of a verse
till the pen
finally scratches a few lines
still doubting
the sense
the vanity
of naming.
from: In de Stream of Time, Meditations in the Himalayas
Germain Droogenbroodt
THE FORGETTING
The threadworm of oblivion
digs blind tunnels
in the soft flesh of the brain
important or unimportant things
it makes no difference
- they disappear
sometimes
they surface somewhere else
sometimes
they are lost forever.
from: In de Stream of Time, Meditations in the Himalayas
Germain Droogenbroodt
Morning at Garden Valley
“To be one with everything that lives,
to return to the All of nature”
Hölderlin
Everything still yearns
for a new day
above the mountains
the fog
bird tracks
audible just
a heartbeat of pure water
the river’s song.
from: In de Stream of Time, Meditations in the Himalayas
Germain Droogenbroodt
EVENING GLOW
The murmur of the water
says what I think
Chuang Tzu
The sun
kindles the fire of her own setting
goes down in her own blood
between the branches of the trees
the wind gives a final sigh
the murmur of the river
can still be heard
but the eye that looks for solace
gets hazy with wine
which so generously dispenses
the evening glow.
from: In de Stream of Time, Meditations in the Himalayas
Germain Droogenbroodt
WRITING
To Ganga Prasad Vimal
Writing is weighing
gathering words
with a candle-light
poetry
is silence
becoming audible
oil
on the river of time.
from: In de Stream of Time, Meditations in the Himalayas
Germain Droogenbroodt
WHAT ELSE IS THE WORD SEARCHING FOR ...
What else
is the word searching for
in the sediment of being
if not the unfathomable
although it exists
just as the water of the river
escapes the hand
but learns its limits in the jar
conserves its form
refreshes,
so sometimes does
a poem.
from: In de Stream of Time, Meditations in the Himalayas
Germain Droogenbroodt
SUNSET AT GRAMAM ISLAND, KERALA
for Jos
Immovable at the riverbank
the slender coconut trees
In their crowns
the offspring
the ripe fruit
An immense mirror alike
the water surface at dusk
reflecting the declining light
An entanglement
of heaven and earth.
Germain Droogenbroodt
unpublished poem
Comments
"it is interesting to know what other poets
do.....I like the metaphor: as if poems become oil for the river
time. That is great....In the stream of time is always the water with
the image of a famous mountain.....Each poet has his way to explain
things but we meet in creation and images; a poem is a vast life.....I
feel different when I talk about poetry, I feel great and high...I can
touch the sky....How beautiful it is to read something which makes you feel all
these things!"
- Najet Adouani, Tunis 1.9.2012
Response by German Droogenbroodt:
"It appears that the poetess reacted positively to my poetry. In fact, as you might have noticed, my poetry has a philosophic flavour, therefore Asian readers appreciate that (my poetry books have been published in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mongolia etc.) but also Arab readers find some Sufi elements in it. Fuad Rifka, dear friend of mine and excellent poet from Lebanon translated and published my book "The Road" in Arab and Benaissa Bouhmala, critic, novelist and professor from Morocco published there my last but one poetry book "Counterlight". By the way, he also writes for my quarterly updated website each time an article in Arab. My poems have been published in the leading Arab newspapers too. In POINT Editions I rendered and published anthologies of the most famous Palestine poet Mahmud Darwish and of Fuad Rifka (and the Greek Ritsos and Elytis etc.)."
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