{"id":2340,"date":"2025-09-24T13:39:24","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T12:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forum.koornbeurs.nl\/?p=2340"},"modified":"2025-09-24T13:39:27","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T12:39:27","slug":"my-favorite-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forum.koornbeurs.nl\/index.php\/2025\/09\/24\/my-favorite-poem\/","title":{"rendered":"My Favorite Poem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article contains minor spoilers for the game Night In The Woods. None for the main plot.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve shared some of my poetry in the Forum before. I\u2019ve been writing it since I was about 12 years old, after I needed to write something for a Dutch assignment and my teacher was really impressed with me. I guess I\u2019m a people pleaser like that\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love writing poetry, since it allows me to turn my terrible feelings into something lovely. Something I can even be proud of. I don\u2019t share all of it, since even I, who put my entire grief process in the Forum, maintain some boundaries, but I love reading it back and seeing what bothered me at a certain time in my life. The words I would put to my loneliness when I was 13, the metaphors that captured my fear living alone for the first time, things like that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite having written poetry for very long, I\u2019ve never been great at reading it. I\u2019ve gotten poetry books from proud grandparents before, but usually I just can\u2019t get through them. It doesn\u2019t help that a lot is about romantic love, which doesn\u2019t interest me that much. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This meant that for a very long time, my favorite poem was, well, my moms favorite poem. This is something of a character defect I can\u2019t seem to shake, that when in doubt I copy either my mom or my sister. This has gotten me into trouble before, but let\u2019s not get into that here.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be fair, my moms favorite poem is quite lovely. It\u2019s called Voor Ari <\/em>by Jules Deelder. It\u2019s about his daughter who has just been born, and how she shouldn\u2019t worry, because the world keeps spinning, whatever happens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is that this poem suits my mom, not me. For one, it\u2019s about parenthood, and secondly, it\u2019s by a guy who got called \u2018Rotterdam\u2019s night mayor\u2019, because of his eccentric style and prevalence in the nightlife. Not really someone I identify with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once I realised this, I set about finding my own favorite poem, which is deceptively hard. It\u2019s hard to find a favorite, instead of realising a favorite. I\u2019ve never actively chosen my favorite song, or favorite color. I\u2019ve just realised that they are. In the end, it mainly boiled down to keeping my ears open for something that resonated with me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was 19, something did. I started playing a game called Night In The Woods. It\u2019s a beautiful game, and I recommend it to everyone. It\u2019s about a girl (who is a cat in the game, don\u2019t question it) moving back home from college to her parents’ place in a town called Possum Springs, and you slowly find out why, as well as some other mysteries happening in the background. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the main themes in the game is how the town is slowly falling apart because it used to be a mining town, but now all the jobs are gone. Everyone is sort of scrambling to keep their life together, or deciding to build a new one somewhere else. In general, it\u2019s very much about trying to return to a past that isn\u2019t there anymore. Which is also reflected by Mae, the main character, realising that all her friends have kind of moved on from her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I really love about the game is the dialogue. I love games that are mainly about talking to NPCs (if you know any good ones hmu). This reflects how I am in real life as well, a true yapper at heart. I\u2019m just always so charmed by conversations and stories that happen in the margins of art. Night In The Woods really scratches that itch for me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of my favorite characters is Selmers. A woman a few years older than Mae, who got told to journal by her therapist, but preferred poetry. Every day you can come up to her and she has these little funny poems for you, that are always very short but sweet. If you talk to her enough, you can unlock a cutscene where she\u2019s at a poetry group in the library, and she reads a longer poem. This is, as you might have guessed, my favorite one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll not write too much on it, other than the fact that if Voor Ari<\/em> felt like my mom, this feels like me. I hope you like it, it reads as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s No Reception in Possum Springs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

No reception here<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wave my black phone<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the air like a flare<\/p>\n\n\n\n

like a prayer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

but no reception<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I read on the Internet <\/p>\n\n\n\n

baby face boy billionaire<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phone app sold <\/p>\n\n\n\n

made more money in one day <\/p>\n\n\n\n

than my family over 100 generations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than my whole world ever has<\/p>\n\n\n\n

World where house-buying jobs <\/p>\n\n\n\n

became rent-paying jobs <\/p>\n\n\n\n

became living with family jobs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boy billionaires<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Money is access <\/p>\n\n\n\n

access to politicians <\/p>\n\n\n\n

waiting for us to die <\/p>\n\n\n\n

lead in our water <\/p>\n\n\n\n

alcohol and painkillers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Replace my job with an app <\/p>\n\n\n\n

replace my dreams of a house and a yard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a couch in the basement<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The future is yours!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forced 24-7 entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just want a paycheck and my own life<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m on the couch in the basement <\/p>\n\n\n\n

they’re in the house and the yard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some night I will catch a bus out to the west coast<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And burn their silicon city <\/p>\n\n\n\n

to the ground<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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