back

XXIV:2
June, 2009

LYNX  
A Journal for Linking Poets  
  
   
       
     

 

DE MARK EN DE STAD BREDA.
                     The (river) Mark and the town of Breda
 POOSPLAATSEN LANGS HET WATER
                     Places to visit along the waters

by Silva Ley

breda card

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On most spots, biker and hiker come across a big stone in which a poem is engraved.

Nrs 1 to 15:   1  Source of the Mark (in Belgium)
                     2  Mark, (branch) Merkske, (village) Castelré
                     3 (village) Meersel- Dreef (B)
                     4 (health resort) Klokkenberg
                     5 (health resort children) The Blue Room
                     6 (slope in landscape) Bustelberg
                      7 (country seats + falcons) Villa’s en Valken
                     8 (Citymoats) Singels of Breda
                     9 (island) Eiland
                    10 Castle of Breda
                    11( Former) Port of Breda 
                    12 (ancient name of Mark = Brede(broad) A.
                        sound A= water. Town later called after, so : Bred’a
                    13 (industriousness and sweet entertainment)=
                         Bedrijvigheid en zoet vermaak
                    14 (low land) Laagland
                    15 (mouth) Monding of the Mark

Translation of backpaper in the boxDe Mark en de stad Breda
Spots of abiding (relaxing, resting) along the river
                       Project of Pien Storm van Leeuwen
                            15 poetry cards
                         loose-leaf collected in a poems-box
                                                +
                         river map and information
                         with poetry from…   (names)

                         Connecting text: Pien Storm van Leeuwen
                         Photography: Jan Willem Storm van Leeuwen
                                Design (styling?) Storm & Storm
         Publication of  Foundation Trajar T  in cooperation with editor
                                              Ceedata, 2009

                                            pien@trajart.nl
                                            www.trajart.nl

           ISBN 978 – 90 – 71947 – 39 – 1
                NUR code 640
 
      Translation of the first CARD with information + 2 photo’s of bank and stone inside:
      1 on top
The concept of ABIDING PLACES (SPOTS?) wants to connect the landscape (scenery) with the way in which people are in the proportion to that scenery. It invites to take a rest and consider the meaning of the spot or the environment.
On carefully chosen spots poetry seats or poetry stones have been placed.
The poems chiselled in, have direct relation with the spot itself.
On the card of that spot you see the poem, the cultural/historical explication and photo’s.

2 De Mark en de stad Breda
   The origin and flowering of Breda are directly connected with the river Mark. Water is a condition for life. If it is there, connected with high grounds to be safe, man isable to reside on the spot. The river is the dynamic and binding factor between town and environments, between town and sea. This concept of’ the Mark and the city of Breda’ pays a tribute to the river and tells us the story of the town of which the name is: BROAD WATER (Wide Water). Up to now the town is situated in a rural region The concept wants to tell a tale in a bird’s eye view, sort of  reflection in water. On 10 spots people find stones with poetry in the fields and the riverbanks.

 


breda card2

 

  

once houses skipped over
                  the city moats
        they can never return

              they displayed bridges
              narrow as passwords

           water streams into water
                 without struggle
               just like our lives
              flow together
        
                     Silva Ley

breda card3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(text under map) BREDA, as small as the city was in 1350,
                                           surrounded by walls and ramparts.
                                          Founder is Count Jan van Polanen

       In the 19th century the earthen defending walls around the city were destroyed. In very ancient times the region was only a vast moor and watery land. The natural free rein and seasonal overflow of the river was later on regulated in the city Singels, but went on following the original head course. Walnut trees and oak trees, willows and poplars embellish these long waterways across the town. Some streets along are closed for cars, but are frequently used by cyclists.
     
If you want to see the project, take www.trajart.nl
The very interesting website of Pien = www.pienstormvanleeuwen.nlcost and order-address.
The editor Jan Willem Storm van Leeuwen gives the next information:

Name :           Ceedata
Address:        Legstraat 1 - B
Place:            4861 RK CHAAM      Netherlands

E-mail:           storm@ceedata.nl

Cost:              $ 20, --   (all included, also sending by post)
                                    
How to pay?   IBAN NL38INGB0004959722
                      BIC (SWIFT) INGBNL2a

 

 

 

 

HOW POEMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS FAIL TO DEMONSTRATE THE DISJUNCTIVE DRAGONFLY
Jane Reichhold

            It seems we have now reached the summer season of professors and pseudo-academics, who unable to write poetry, attempting to fill books with complete nonsense about the statue of their scholastic positions. There is a new big one just in time for falling asleep in a hammock.


hammock view
swinging back and forth
the sea and sleep

            Among the odd bits of theory and “key concepts of poetics” the idea that “disjunction” is something new and vital to haiku is being put forth by Richard Gilbert in this book. Through many pages, with all the correct footnotes and references, the reader is supposed to be impressed with this idea that what makes haiku great is this aspect of disjunction.


May hammock
as it swings a whale
dives into the deep

            It is true that the phenomenon of disjunction in poetry has been around since the Greeks first fiddled with it, and the Chinese understood and used the concept long before any one else was that interested in poetry. All these poets understood what Gilbert does not. That one of the aspects of poetry is about finding oneness in the world and showing it to others.


tied to a tree
humming of the wind
in the hammock

            We all know intimately about disjunctiveness as we go through days of collecting the most astounding events, people, ideas and impressions crowding together in our minds – often with a clamorous effect. That is not poetry. Disjunctiveness is not a poetical device and especially not one used in haiku and other Japanese genres.


a spot of sun
moving over the hammock
breezes

            What we learn from poets, from any land, is what the Japanese have learned to do so well – linking. There is the poetry. The way words and images are used to carry ideas and images from one mind to another is the skill of writing. The art of poetry comes from the heart and minds of poets and their readers as they form the linkages between a disparity of ideas or objects. How one goes from puppies to stars is much more interesting to the poet than the idea that yes! these seem to be two separate and distinct things. Hello?


sun warmed
holes in the hammock
still cool

            The challenge is to find that small pivot, that pinpoint where two images cross, while stretching the mind as far as one can and then to create the words that call up additional images that take the reader by the hand while crossing from one to the other. That is haiku. That is how it works.

pine and cypress
swinging between them
a hammock

            Professor Gilbert fails to understand this. That is why his listing of the haiku techniques, which I first discovered and he has now renamed and claimed as his own, falls so flat in his book. He is interested in the separateness of things, and these techniques were created to help the haiku writer, or any one else, build the bridges needed between any two or more parts of the poem. He can glibly give the techniques new and meaningless names because he does understand how and why to use them. He is like the cat that looks at the finger pointing to the mouse instead of being the poet who makes the leap to catch the bit of life across the room.


a summer day
hanging in the hammock
under shade trees

            There are a lot of good men in the haiku scene and many of them write excellent haiku. What the world does not need is a bunch of them ganging up, ignoring women, who do more of the writing than they do, and then discussing with pursed lips and pages of gestures how mysterious it is and yet how they know it all – with footnotes. Most of the references to books Gilbert studied are by men and it is the men who will now endlessly discuss the fact that the book is not very good, and probably its only value is in the added on interviews with German and Japanese (mostly) men. So ladies, if you wish to spend $28.00 plus postage to find yourself ignored and blarney-stoned about theories that do not hold water; go get the book on your way to the nunnery.


waking up
in the hammock
years younger

 

ARTICLES

DE MARK EN DE STAD BREDA.
The (river) Mark and the town of Breda
 POOSPLAATSEN LANGS HET WATER
Places to visit along the waters

by Silva Ley

 

HOW POEMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS FAIL TO DEMONSTRATE THE DISJUNCTIVE DRAGONFLY by
Jane Reichhold

   
       
       
 

 

Back issues of Lynx:

XV:2 June, 2000
XV:3 October, 2000
XVI:1 Feb. 2001
XVI:2 June, 2001
XVI:3 October, 2001  
XVII:1 February, 2002
XVII:2 June, 2002
XVII:3 October, 2002
XVIII:1 February, 2003
XVIII:2 June, 2003
XVIII:3, October, 2003
XIX:1 February, 2004
XIX:2 June, 2004

XIX:3 October, 2004

XX:1,February, 2005

XX:2 June, 2005
XX:3 October, 2005
XXI:1February, 2006 
XXI:2, June, 2006

XXI:3,October, 2006

XXII:1 February, 2007
XXII:2 June, 2007
XXII:3 October, 2007

XXIII:1 Feruary, 2008
XXIII:2 June, 2008
XXIII:3, October, 2008

XXIV:1, February, 2009

 

Submit your works to Lynx

Who We Are

back

 

 

Next Lynx is scheduled for October, 2009 .


Deadline for submission of work is
September 1, 2009.