Janna van der Meer

Janna van der Meer (1969, Aldegea – Súdwesthoeke) studied Literary Theory at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Afterwards she held various managerial positions outside of the province of Fryslân. Writing was just a hobby. She only spoke her mother tongue to her cat.

But when she came back to her homeland, she decided to write in Frisian: “And to get closer to myself through poetry.” Her endeavours culminated in the poetry collection Wêzen (Being), published by Bornmeer in 2017.

At the moment she is a freelance writer. www.jannavandermeer.nl

In her search in how to express herself as personally as possible, Janna uses images as well as language. A selection of her photography is displayed at the gallery ‘It Fotolokaal’ in the village of Tsjerkwert during the summer of 2020. These photographs have been inspired by the following poem:

creature

from under the covers
the creature rises
legs groan
heavy with sleep
layers fall
from my bundled-up body
that was hidden in the dark

waking up

since helmsman head
relinquished control last night
and I let myself glide
into the wide sea of dreams
in which our little lives bob around
and consigned myself to the thoughts
which live as strange
fish in that water
and search for and find each other
in ways
that don’t play
along to the logic
of the day

I was gone
I was back

now I feel myself called
by the light and see
a new dawn
still clad in wet velvet
the soft rising of the sun

soon it will dry me
into the shape
I have to take on
for this life
in this world

every day
every night
the same old song