Tuesday poem #699 : Samuel Vriezen : Second Ode to the European Union

 

 

unbegun continent condemning one
          to improvise, acrobatic
                     deficit, its questions 

commands, ious in the night
          of tourism, sells its last
                     peak above water level 

to the last bidder, all enter-
          prise put off, yet ever greater
                     masses at the gate, at a loss, 

writing off the future, unfinished
          crowd, powers in the night
                     of number indecisively 

defined, [you and I] dis-
          posed of, ever polishing, a trace
                     near the sea, we 

a stray demand, final
          hard workers, groundless,
                     rate rising on the beach 

and appeals at lip level, the origins
          as words go back and forth
                     an anacoluthon, discharged 

and forced to settle, in
          ancient cities, illicit
                     promises that all’s not done

 

 

(to Frank Keizer)

Samuel Vriezen (1973) is a composer, poet, performer, writer living in Amsterdam. He has composed music to texts by Rob Halpern (Disaster Songs, for the David Kweksilber Big Band), Peter Gizzi (Vincent, Homesick for the Land of Pictures, for Ensemble Scordatura) and Gertrude Stein (for Ensemble Dedalus and Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman, libretto adaptation by Adam Frank). His collection De harmonie der scheuren (The Harmony of the Cracks) was awarded De Grote Poëzieprijs 2026, one of the most important poetry awards in the Dutch language. He is currently working on albums of very extensive algorithmic electronic music, which he publishes on Bandcamp. 

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan