„who is the octopus – the dreamer or the dream“?
Certainly many of you had some exciting days during the Football World Cup in South Africa. We’ve had a good time here in Berlin at the lyrikline.org headquarter (at least until the semi finals) with nearly all colleagues in our institution (Literaturwerkstatt Berlin) swept by football fever. In the end, the lyrikline.org office was defeated in the in-house betting pool by the open mike department in a very close race.
The headline of this article is quoted from a nice poem found on lyrikline which seems to have been made for Paul, the octopus oracle that was so (tragically) right this year. Here is the octopus poem by Joanne Burns from Australia.
Thanks to everyone for following our poetic match series on Twitter and Facebook, that presented two poems from the competing countries every day (except for a short holiday break). For the archives, here is the complete list of the poetic encounters:
June 11
South Africa vs Mexico
Ike Mboneni Muila / José Emilio Pacheco
Uruguay vs France
Eduardo Milán / Georges-Emmanuel Clancier
June 12
South Korea vs Greece
HUH Su Kyung / Kostas Koutsourelis
June 13
Germany vs Australia
Jan Wagner / Antigone Kefala
June 14
The Netherlands vs Denmark
Tsead Bruinja / Morten Søndergaard
June 15
Ivory Coast vs Portugal
Tanella Boni / Gonçalo M. Tavares
June 16
Spain vs Switzerland
Manuel Forcano / Donata Berra
June 17
Argentina vs South Korea
Juan Gelman / CHONG Hyonjong
June 18
Germany vs Serbia
Marcel Beyer / Matija Bećković
June 19
The Netherlands vs Japan
Serge van Duijnhoven / Kazuko Shiraishi
June 20
Brazil vs Ivory Coast
Ricardo Domeneck / Tanella Boni
June 21
Chile vs Switzerland
Raúl Zurita / Leo Tuor
June 22
France vs South Africa
Jacques-Frédéric Temple / Antjie Krog
July 2
The Netherlands vs Brazil
Erik Lindner / Arnaldo Antunes
July 3
Argentina vs Germany
Daniel Samoilovich / Ursula Krechel
July 6
Uruguay vs The Netherlands
Eduardo Milán / Jan-Willem Anker
July 7
Germany vs Spain
Nico Bleutge / Perejaume
July 10
Uruguay vs Germany
Eduardo Milán / Lutz Seiler
July 11
The Netherlands vs Spain
Arjen Duinker / Claudio Rodríguez
Finally, congratulations to Spain!
Speech of Lebogang Mashile at the Opening of 10 years of lyrikline.org festivities
gezett.de
26.10.2009 Palais (Kulturbrauerei), Berlin
Mr President, Ms Köhler, Ladies and Gentelmen,
Africa is home to a vibrant and dynamic oral tradition. Before the word was written on paper, it was written on the minds, hearts and memories of human beings. Oral tradition, or living language, has been used to record genealogy, movement patterns, wars, significant events, and scientific information for millennia. Texts travel from person to person through time and space. Memory serves as both the page and the archive. Each human being who is in possession of stories, poems, and songs about their people is a living library. Therefore human life is valuable not just in and of itself, but also as a storehouse for knowledge that has been passed down for generations.
In South Africa, where I come from, every African family has what is referred to as an isithakazelo in isiZulu. This family poem is a source of immense pride and is perceived as an invaluable cultural heirloom. Children are taught how to say their family praise poem from an early age. This poem is (more…)
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