my poetry is the world (1973)
my poetry is the world
i write it every day
i rewrite it every day
i see it every day
i read it every day
i eat it every day
i sleep it every day
the world is my chance
it changes me every day
my chance is my poetry
english, spoken by herman de vries
dutch, spoken by herman de vries
provençal
turkish
khmer
djollah
el silbo
source: herman de vries, 'my poetry is the world', written 1972 and published in exhibition catalogue Kijkijk 73. Expositie van Nederlandse visuele poezie (Galerie De Vaart : Hilversum 1973) with indication: statement. Reprinted in herman de vries : vijf manifesten over taal - en een gedicht = fünf manifeste über sprache - und ein gedicht ... (artists press : bern 1975), in to be : texte - textarbeiten - textbilder (Stuttgart 1995) 85 and in many other publications and catalogues. Also executed in stone in pavement in front of Havendijk no. 40, Gorinchem (1974), without the lines 4 and 7. 2nd. print as a poster in Lao and English, Vientiane (1975). The text was translated in many languages and published in my poetry is the world / edited by Lydia Megert, Paris (Eschenau 2002).
The English spoken text is recorded by Rainer Pließ for Master Peace Records, Sulzheim - November 2004 and added to herman de vries : les livres et les publications; catalogue raisonné / textes de herman de vries, Anne Moeglin-Delcroix, Didier Mathieu (Centre des livres d'artistes : Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche 2005). The Dutch and other languages, except djollah, are unknown at the moment (archive herman de vries).
Silbo Gomero, also known as el silbo, is a whistled register of Spanish used by inhabitants of La Gomera in the Canary Islands to communicate across the deep ravines and narrow valleys that radiate through the island. It enables messages to be exchanged over a distance of up to 5 kilometres.[Wikipedia]. The djollah version of the manifesto, spoken by Sardja Badjie, Rheakunda/Gambia, was part of a special edition for herman de vries, wolfgang bauer, hartmut gehrcken [sic], rainer pliess. Nr. 01-04 (September 2002) and recorded by Hartmut Geerken.
