POETRY AT BERGEN
If Austin is the Athens of America
Bergen is the Austin of Holland
Sunday afternoon
reading in seven languages
Feeling the difference
Harsh precision of the Dutch
If you could understand the language
you would understand the poem
Russian
The power of
a shot of cold vodka
and survival on the steppes
Afrikaans
Dutch rubbed smooth
by the soft hills of Africa
Latin
Still the mother of language
singing through her children
Spanish
Music of Lorca
moving your body as you listen
French
Dark musings of Rimbaud
a shrug in every verb
English
The fish does not see water
but there was food everywhere