Eline Hermans  

poet, The Netherlands

Morning thoughts

So much I could say, about dreaming with eyes open,
and how different it is when they are closed,
About the silence that falls as I walk through the forest,
and what my heart is murmuring to the sea.

About the fragments that comprise my life:
when day breaks, they are no more than memories.
About the way my heart makes little jumps in unguarded moments,
and how the night comes down.

Of how different things would be, if I said more, or said less
if words themselves were to stir, find the path from heart to heart,
and burrow down and disappear
and re-emerged, transformed, tomorrow.
And quite simply, about staring into space,
finding strength,
and realizing that today I may meet not only this, but also you.


Arts Dialogue, June 2001, page 22.
Translation: Sen McGlinn



Raindrop

When a waiting cloud
begins to move
and the sea falls silent,
If we go together
to comfort a crying child,

The desert, with its quiet voice,
Does not contradict
the jungle.

Eline Hermans, The Netherlands

Translated from the Dutch by Sen McGlinn.
Arts Dialogue, February 2002, page 19.