By the time you’re reading this I should be quite a way away from Delft, recovering from surgery, but in some way I think that makes the publishing of this poem now all the sweeter. Almost certainly I’ll be thinking of the lovely association we get to share and trying to keep in contact with a bunch of you silly friends of mine.
As for this poem, I’d like to thank Maya for the initial inspiration. After reading her poetry bundle, in particular the poem Monument1, I wanted to write a poem to relate my own experience of the Koornbeurs. And as fate would have it I spent the next night connecting with a few friends over poetry and inspiration struck. Thus the following poem flowed from my mind at 3 AM that selfsame night.
A Monument to Us
To creatures of the night, the vampire and the fey
The home we make our own, we hunters and we prey
These vaults of brick and mortar
Keep safe a treasured quarter
Our home is found between these walls
This sunken basement us vagabonds calls
Its harmony lifts our searching feet
A tired shuffle turns to dance across a music sheet
Up stairs a solar waits, a climb of tired gaits
Amongst armchairs there, a tea gestates
Papers as leaves float across the discoursing mind
Let them steep, their words their proper place find
These walls, the arches and beams, the patchwork quilt
Together fashioned, this found family, community we've built
Together we've made, and together we keep
A place in the heart, a connection between us, deep
There is something quite indescribable in these bricks
A home, a community, no word quite sticks
An unspoken toast over clinking drinks,
An understanding between friends, approaches it most methinks
To creatures of the night, the vampire and the fey
The home we make our own, we hunters and we prey,
Is a beacon for the lost, the unfound, the hidden-in-their-skin
Spin webs and stories, weave to invite our kin
- If you’re interested in reading this poem you should probably hit up Maya’s dm’s 😉 ↩︎