Until the Night of Poetry: can we do something with the hashtag #poezieverbindt?

Art has been utterly politicised. It has been creeping, and faster than I thought. Artists meanwhile make political speeches, conduct public participation exercises in the service of lobbying organisations. They discuss identity instead of telling the stories that take us beyond the delusion of the day.

That culture funds softly now too Starting to talk about social connection worries me even more. The end of the VSB Poetry Prize is a symptom, but it should also be a wake-up call. What 'more focus on social connecting activities'! We have been connecting for millennia thanks to poetry.

Technology

Poetry is pretty much the oldest art form we have. The Iliad and Odyssey, the Edda, the Mahabharata: people have always used rhyme, rhythm and measure to make stories easier to remember and pass on. A technical tool, indeed, that poetry, but one that lasts longer than the average digital protocol we rely on so much these days. Who can still Open Wordperfect files?

Poetry was always a binding agent. Not only between people, but also between generations and even between eras. Come to terms with that with your average policy paper, whether it was drafted by a college-educated actor or not. In seeking to legitimise art, artists themselves have put the axe to the root of the arts. They have started talking with the politicians. The WRR, which only a few years ago made an appeal to look again at the intrinsic value of art, so it was too late.

Wilhelm lesson

The problem, of course, is that intrinsic value cannot be explained and cannot be expressed in results. The only cowardly attempt we will get over the next few years is the Wilhelmus lesson in primary school. But that is mainly meant to make us more nationalistic, or to remind us of the European idea (German blood, honour to Juan Carlos of Spain). Nothing intrinsic.

Saturday, September 16, we celebrate the 35th Night of Poetry. I sincerely hope that between eight o'clock in the evening and three o'clock in the morning we don't get a list of political speeches. I do hope to be able to cherish all kinds of topical and political thoughts, because that is my hobby, but I hope that the poetry I am going to hear will take those thoughts to another level. Because that is what art is capable of: taking us beyond the delusion of the day, beyond the shadows on the walls of Plato's cave.

#poezieverbindt

What about you? I had a sudden thought last night: what if we all shared our favourite line of poetry on social media? You only have 140 characters on twitter, but that's enough for a title. And that we then built up a whole collection with that until 16 September? That we check it again, when poetry is celebrated in Utrecht for one night.

So here's my appeal. Share your favourite line of poetry on twitter, your most beautiful stanza on facebook, and if necessary, paste in poesy pictures on Instagram. Do so with the hashtag '#poezieverbindt' and who knows. It might pay off. Someday.

Something we cannot measure, but can feel.