After I replied to my friend that I would not be voting for a Dutch poet laureate, he wondered whether I would reconsider if I looked again and more closely at the plans of the candidates for their tenure, should they be chosen. Did I not think, he asked, that Hagar Peeters showed a real social commitment and were her good intentions not worth a vote?
So, back I went. I took a bit of digging, but I finally found the information I was looking for on the page for voting. Here, underneath the pictures, are three clickable options for each poet: vote, find out more, and plans of the poet. Tsead Bruinja has a nice clear five point program, but most of his plans seem to promote poets and their activities. Nothing wrong with that in principle, but it sounds a bit like pissing in their own pot. I very quickly gave up on Joke van Leeuwen, because her language was too official, academic. More an essay than an approach to the common reader. Erik Menkveld ditto, although at least he divides his plans in points. But they are just a little vague. Ramsey Nasr tells a story, he sounds real and his plans sound straight forward and doable. And then Hagar Peeters, the daughter of my friend. Her piece sounds very direct, very personal, but also very personable.
Hagar Peeters sums up her plans as follows: poetry counts, poetry is important and poetry should be socially committed. Her two most important plans are to encourage young people, in schools, to write 'poetry without rhyme or reason', poems from the heart, about their emotions and experiences, to help these youths talk about what is important to them. Her second plan is to edit poetry collections of poems written by immigrants to The Netherlands from Indonesia, Turkey, Marocco, Dutch Suriname etc. with identity as the theme: 'poems about us and each other'. The poems to be printed in two languages: the original language and Dutch. The purpose being, of course, to broaden and deepen understanding.
Hmmm. So. For me a toss up between Nasr and Peeters.
Next I looked at a web page from a Dutch daily (NRC Handelsblad) that encourages readers to vote. Each of the candidates has written a poem for this paper. Reading these clinched it for me. The most accessible, most moving poem was by Hagar Peeters. Her "Poem without rhyme or reason" is written from the standpoint of a twelve year old girl whose father was beaten to death in a drunken brawl. So I changed my mind and voted for her. Go Hagar!!
By the way, as an aside. The Dutch sure are wordy people. Just look at the weblink for the NRC Handelsblad page:
http://www.nrcboeken.nl/nieuws/bepaal-zelf-wie-de-nieuwe-dichter-des-vaderlands-wordt
(the last bit after the last forward slash means: you determine who will be the new national poet).
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