October 25, 2024. This week marks the release of edition 70 of Lira News, which features the new pass-the-poem #6 ‘babel’ by Rozalie Hirs.

Langelaar wrote pass-the-poem #5 ‘Wind’ (edition 69, July 2024) and passed the baton to Rozalie Hirs. “If you are not yet familiar with the work of Rozalie Hirs, consider yourself exceptionally fortunate. I imagine it as discovering an entirely new and idiosyncratic planet. Her first collection dates back to 1998, and since then, her meticulously crafted biotope has evolved—layered with textures both earthly and celestial, resonating with sounds and tones. The mythical landscape that has emerged is an open field for exploration. It’s a terrain to wander through endlessly, sometimes absorbing the silence of a single word, at other times tumbling and stumbling forward. Whirling like a dervish. And then, face-to-face with the enchantment, the mystery.”

Hirs passes the baton to Eva Gerlach: “The work of Eva Gerlach is one I have known and admired since the 1980s, when I first began writing poetry. She has a unique ability to weave together the grand and the intimate. Her poetry explores profound themes of life, death, vulnerability, domesticity, and love, all conveyed through a language of extraordinary precision. Her voice is unmistakably Dutch—accessible and familiar—yet at the same time entirely her own, independent, and autonomous.”

Read all the pass-the-poem contributions (and more about this serial) on the Lira website.