Poetry from the Low Countries: My aunts by Manuel Kneepkens

Wednesday 13 January 2016

My aunts by Manuel Kneepkens

My aunts

My aunts the Goddesses, gigantic pumpkins
thus descended, well scrubbed, from the Olympus
into Troy's mahogany drawing rooms
Under slapstick hats they demolished
cream cake after cream cake

In summer they resided uninterrupted on picnic plaids
chequered red & white
The chocolate éclairs of black trousered bottoms
bruised buttercup & daisy. The harpsichord
of skylarks was soon drowned out. Each produced
a voice of solid Limburg oak or smacked their lips!

Well, there I sat. In every corner
a cow-eyed goddess ('Who wants the apple?)
skirts pulled up, thighs improperly bared

Ah well, decayed are all those downy pouting lips
all those proud pounds of peach flesh
Withered are the red cheeks of that juicy dispute

About: Liqueur-pink gossip Iliad & Odyssey!

Manuel Kneepkens [1942]

Original title: Mijn tantes - From the collection: Tuin van eetlust - Uitgeverij De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam - 1st druk 1976.

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Hans van den Bos

was born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1948.

In the late Sixties, after National Service, he began working in a bookshop, which he took over after a number of years. The shop, under his direction, became specialised in Literature, Modern Art and Architecture, containing one of the largest collections of poetry in the whole of The Netherlands.

He was invited, in the 1990's, by the former director of Poetry International, the late Martin Mooij, to display his poetry collection on a book stall at the annual festival in Rotterdam. In 1997 he closed the shop and 5 years later emigrated to Ireland, where he is presently busy as a writer and translator of poetry.

Contact: JohannesvandenBos@protonmail.com

Hilary Reynolds

Hilary Reynolds is an English/Dutch classical singer, music teacher and choral conductor, who was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela in 1954.

She studied singing and piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London and, after graduating in 1978, moved to The Netherlands, where she pursued a career as a concert singer and vocal coach. In 2002, she moved to Ireland, together with her husband, Hans van den Bos, where she had been invited by the Head of the Music Department of University College Cork to take up a post there teaching Vocal Studies, Art-Song and Opera.

For a number of years, she has collaborated with Hans van den Bos writing theatre shows and plays and assisted with translations of his own work as well as of other poets, including translations of Russian poetry by Anna Achmatova.