Peace, peace they say (ebook)
In this collection of poems that "refused to sound upbeat," Martine van Bijlert confronts the dissonance of writing about peace "while the world around us bucked and roiled." Fuelled by "memories of aftermath and foreboding" and a stubborn insistence not to call peace what isn't, the poems keep returning to the "messy work / of hoping for a miracle / while wading through / the mud of trying." Van Bijlert's refusal to sugarcoat either war or peace infuses the poems with raw power and emotional depth.
"intimate, meditative and piercing
... a profoundly moving read"
"a profound journey of personal reflection and artistic expression, shaped by the echoes of war and highlighting the complexities of living in our time. ... overwhelming and comforting in equal measure."
“The poems inhabit the strange world that is born when we live beyond belief. … With Peace Peace They Say, Martine van Bijlert steps into the circle of prophets.”
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"Soft words to knock you down ... deeply moving ... like having someone strike a resonant gong in your guts."
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Martine van Bijlert is a mixed media poet, artist and writer, who grew up in Iran, lives in the Netherlands and in between worked as an aid worker, researcher and diplomat, mostly in Afghanistan.
The collection contains sixty-one poems, an in-depth author's note and a postscript. The formatting of the poems may be affected by the e-book format.