De Engelse dichteres en schrijfster Anne Sexton werd geboren op 9 november 1928 in Newton, Massachusetts. Zie ook mijn blog van 9 november 2008.xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

After Auschwitz

Anger,

as black as a hook,

overtakes me.

Each day,

each Nazi

took, at 8: 00 A.M., a baby

and sauteed him for breakfast

in his frying pan.

And death looks on with a casual eye

and picks at the dirt under his fingernail.

Man is evil,

I say aloud.

Man is a flower

that should be burnt,

I say aloud.

Man

is a bird full of mud,

I say aloud.

And death looks on with a casual eye

and scratches his anus.

Man with his small pink toes,

with his miraculous fingers

is not a temple

but an outhouse,

I say aloud.

Let man never again raise his teacup.

Let man never again write a book.

Let man never again put on his shoe.

Let man never again raise his eyes,

on a soft July night.

Never. Never. Never. Never. Never.

I say those things aloud.

I beg the Lord not to hear.

Baby Picture

It's in the heart of the grape

where that smile lies.

It's in the good-bye-bow in the hair

where that smile lies.

It's in the clerical collar of the dress

where that smile lies.

What smile?

The smile of my seventh year,

caught here in the painted photograph.

It's peeling now, age has got it,

a kind of cancer of the background

and also in the assorted features.

It's like a rotten flag

or a vegetable from the refrigerator,

pocked with mold.

I am aging without sound,

into darkness, darkness.

Anne,

who are you?

I open the vein

and my blood rings like roller skates.

I open the mouth

and my teeth are an angry army.

I open the eyes

and they go sick like dogs

with what they have seen.

I open the hair

and it falls apart like dust balls.

I open the dress

and I see a child bent on a toilet seat.

I crouch there, sitting dumbly

pushing the enemas out like ice cream,

letting the whole brown world

turn into sweets.

Anne,

who are you?

Merely a kid keeping alive.

Anne Sexton (9 november 1928 – 4 oktober 1974)

De Duitse dichteres en schrijfster Karin Kiwus werd geboren op 9 november 1942 in Berlijn. Zie ook mijn blog van 9 november 2008.

Im ersten Licht

Wenn wir uns gedankenlos getrunken haben
    aus einem langen Sommerabend
      in eine kurze heiße Nacht
wenn die Vögel dann früh
      davonjagen aus gedämpften Färbungen
in den hellen tönenden frischgespannten Himmel

wenn ich dann über mir in den Lüften
weit und feierlich mich dehne
in den mächtigen Armen meiner Toccata

wenn du dann neben mir im Bett
deinen auslandenden Klangkörper bewegst
dich dumpf aufrichtest und zur Tür gehst

und wenn ich dann im ersten Licht
    deinen fetten Arsch sehe
      deinen Arsch
                        verstehst du
deinen trüben verstimmten ausgeleierten Arsch

dann weiß ich wieder
      daß ich dich nicht liebe
                                wirklich
        daß ich dich einfach nicht liebe.

Karin Kiwus (Berlijn, 9 november 1942)

De Engelse dichter en schrijver Roger Joseph McGough werd geboren op 9 november 1937 in Litherland, Lancashire. Zie ook mijn blog van 9 november 2008.

The Trouble with Snowmen

'The trouble with snowmen,'

Said my father one year

'They are no sooner made

than they just disappear.

I'll build you a snowman

And I'll build it to last

Add sand and cement

And then have it cast.

And so every winter,'

He went on to explain

'You shall have a snowman

Be it sunshine or rain.'

And that snowman still stands

Though my father is gone

Out there in the garden

Like an unmarked gravestone.

Staring up at the house

Gross and misshapen

As if waiting for something

Bad to happen.

For as the years pass

And I grow older

When summers seem short

And winters colder.

The snowmen I envy

As I watch children play

Are the ones that are made

And then fade away.

Roger McGough (Litherland, 9 november 1937)

Zie voor onderstaande schrijvers ook mijn blog van 9 november 2008.

De Indische dichter en schrijver Mohammed Iqbal werd geboren op 9 november 1877 in Sialkot in het tegenwoordige Pakistan. Zie ook mijn blog van 9 november 2006.

De joods-Hongaarse schrijver Imre Kertész werd geboren op 9 november 1929 in Boedapest. Zie ook mijn blog van 9 november 2006.

De Amerikaanse schrijver, astronoom en populariseerder van de wetenschap Carl Edward Sagan werd geboren in New York op 9 november 1934.