Bartle Laverman

Bartle Laverman (Leeuwarden 1948 – Offingawier 2020) published his first collection It Freeslik Feest in 1969. Every poem was accompanied by a drawing by Anne de Vries. In 2016 his thirteenth volume In echte Fries was published, this time illustrated by photos of a number of his own paintings.

Eppie Dam wrote the following about his most recent collection in the Leeuwarder Courant of 30/12/2016:
“Actually, Bartle is not really Frisian, but his In echte Fries is completely Bartle.In his own manner (already well-known to us) Laverman shows how he stands up for the things he distances himself from. A challenge, but never so in the hands of a poet who knows his way with humour.”

Poetry collections
1969 – It Freeslik Feest
1975 – Skimerlânskippen
1977 – Winter
1979 – Neitins
1979 – Kloentsjetee
1981 – Ik laitsje my dea
1984 – Master ûnder protters
1996 – Boerefersen
1999 – Kophimmelje
2004 – Alles komt wer goed
2007 – Man op solder
2012 – Foar elke man in eigen pake
2016 – In echte Fries

Submitted poems
Why Brownlee left
QED
The Castaway
To the Peat folk

 

why Brownlee left

 why Brownlee left
is still today
for cityfolk
a mystery
for if a man
should have been happy
it would be him:
all those pictures in
Country Life or Outdoor
he lived them!
every day Mother Nature’s Son!
didn’t he love his horses?
didn’t his milkers have a name?

why Brownlee left
even now
his neighbours don’t want to know:
he who steps aside
falls into silence
weather and time
rules every countryman:
seeding proceeds earning
and on sunday too
the udders fill

(maybe he’s on an island now
pencil in fist
waiting
for a Derek Hill)

© Bartle Laverman
Dêr't de ko him deljout/Where the cow lies down (Koperative Utjouwerij, 2006)
Translation: Bartle Laverman/John Brown