Carla van der Zwaag

Carla van der Zwaag (1951) was born and raised in Heerenveen. As she was browsing in a book store with her twin sister at the age of 13, she came upon a collection of poetry by Hanny Michaelis. Before long she started writing her own poems, several of which were published in the school newspaper of the Kweekskoalle (Teacher Training College) in Sneek. She got married, had three children and was a teacher for 25 years, after which she again had time to write poetry and to draw. After a three-year course of Frisian, a poetry course by Abe de Vries and a Masterclass led by Arjan Hut, she was ready to start writing Frisian poetry.

Carla is part of the poetry collective FersFroulju (Women of Verse) and in 2019 she joined the group of poets contributing new poetry to FeRstival, a poetry recital festival for school children. Lately Carla is making drawings to go with her poems.


Submitted poems
Lonely
Melting together

Melting together

In the distance
I saw you,
you sea,
like a bathtub
caught
between two dunes.

I cheered
untill you would
show yourself
to me
in full glory.

Mountains of stone and sand
like a veil covering your face.
More close
tower-high houses
with thousands of window-eyes.

At last
you spread for me
your most beautiful
blue-silver carpet,
foam on your cheeks.

Your skin, so yellow-glowing,
met my toes.
I spread my arms,
fell into you.

Our melting together
only took a quarter of an hour.
Than you threw me
on your highest waves,
satisfied,
back on the warm beach.


© Carla van der Zwaag
Translation: Carla van der Zwaag.
Fers2 nû. 5.5, 10 maart 2019