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Erik Lindner

  • Man in the water
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An armless woman is standing by the lake
outside the spaceship disk of a teahouse
you imagine how she lifted up her arms
and tossed them flying into the sky 
the woman looks at you open-mouthed
you stretch towards your two arms through the water
you lost your wedding ring in the rose garden
your wristwatch always runs an hour fast
 
on the fallen clump of trees across the water
you see birds’ nests and black beetles
a duck swims slowly towards you
turns its beak and you see its eye
in which the lake is round and blue
your legs float across the pond’s soft shallows
over ooze and wisps of mud
the water is cold your coat swells out
and undulates along the ripples of your fall
the duck quacks and veers away from you
tree branches rock along the waterline
 
day is breaking the light is rising
when the woman stoops to the water
drinks the lake dry with her open mouth
you’re lying in a hollow your hands in the mud
you lift your chest and slowly stretch
you pull your hands from the sludge with a plop
and place them just above her armpits
where her arms used to be
her hair is short her breasts are small
the stone feels warm her neck unblemished
 
and you feel her power to lift you up
her will to pull you out of the earth
and throw you high into the sky
towards the clouds the sun the planets
the milky way the dust of stars
right through the vowels of your name
erasing the roundabout ways you took
before the summer you arrived on earth
a wind blew up that didn’t last long
and the blossom landed between the wheat. 

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Erik Lindner (born The Hague, The Netherlands, 1968) debuted in 1996 with Tramontane. He published six volumes of poetry and two novels. His selected poems in German translation Nach Akedia (Matthes & Seitz Berlin Verlag, 2012) was a recommendation by the German academy for language and poetry. In 2021, his first book of poetry in English appeared: Words are the Worst (Vehicule Press / Signal Editions, Montreal) translated by Francis R. Jones. This book is nominated for the Derek Walcott Poetry Prize 2022. Erik Lindner lives and works as a freelance writer in Amsterdam.

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  • Home
  • Festival Editions
    • 2018
    • 2019
    • 2020
    • 2021
    • 2022
  • Chair Poet in Residence Program
  • Media
    • Media 2018
    • Media 2019
  • About
  • Contact
  • Interviews
  • Visual Poetry