A DARK PATH
My beginning was the fall
when all came loose and fell
until I met you
and winter began
I should have hibernated
would have gone South
but before I could fly
you already cut away my wings
Will there, over a dark path
come a meagre sun
tickling me on my back
and will my wings regrow?
Poem: Lara Kool
Lara Kool (1985) is a novice writer and student at the Frisian writers school (Skriuwersfakskoalle). She is affiliated with the Rixt Poets Collective and has published several poems on their website rixt.frl. She wrote three poems for the FeRstival this year, a recital competition for secondary schools and was one of the winners of the poster-poem competition organised by the poet of Fryslân. One of her poems will be displayed on a panel along the Poets’ Path (Dichterspaad), a walking route in Oudega. She also writes non-fiction texts for primary schools and enjoys writing prose for young and old. She prefers to write in Frisian, the language of her ancestors, which she learned at the age of 32.
Image: Janine van Zeeland
Janine van Zeeland (1956) started painting in her studio snuggled in the fields of north-east Friesland after a career as a lecturer in visual arts and art history. Field and farm animals are an inexhaustible source of inspiration for her. Either on their own or interacting with each other, in unexpected poses or combinations and always in the tranquillity and vastness of the polder landscape. Working with the poet Eppie Dam, she created the book Een dier is ook maar een mens (An animal is only human too) in 2021, in which Dam wrote poems for 42 of Janine’s works. She paints mainly with oil on canvas.