Best Antwerp Poems

At The Gates of Auschwitz

Today, I stand
At the gates of hell;
“Arbeit macht frei,”
(work sets you free!)
That is Auschwitz.
Where they burned God’s children,
And the world stood by;
Oblivious,
To what was happening inside.

The League of Nations
(Whose mandate was World Peace)
Failed!
And in 1942
The trains rolled into Auschwitz
Carrying God’s children;
Packed...

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Dedicated to my pastor, Dean Andrew Cheah

Come, hear me now as I tell you a tale
An inspiring tale of William Tyndale
A man who poured out his life to translate
God's Word from Greek, not the Latin Vulgate

He fled from country to country
Living like an unsettled refugee
He...

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Why people somewhere so kind and gentle
and somewhere not? 
Why people in Saint-Petersburg ,
Moskow,  Astana, Bishkek
Look so impolite, inhospitable and  unfriendly?
Ask about it the happy inhabitants
or better look himself for what 
is the best  product  of free society 
this kind of...

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In an attempt to establish an uncertain linkage between 2 parables,
Ivo Torena resorted to impress his colleagues all night long; hence,
awkward as a cow on a crutch, he was cowed into pilfering bananas,
and when he was caught red-handed by the deputy, his eyes showed
no response...

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In an old briefcase
capsuled for years in a corner
of the shed, I found a rolled up wad
of poems, stalled, still looking 
for something to say, frozen 
in a futile gasp for air. 
I should have thrown 
them away. 

There was also an old plane ticket,
a...

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The Voyage 

The big seagull sat on the bow of my rowing boat 
                               ...

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Patrasche loved being a rescue dog in his youth
husky with one blue eye, one brown eye and a curled tail
his reputation was solid; he could track an owl’s beak
older now, he felt the frost and ice in his bones tonight

His master had asked him to...

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Vincent Willhelm van Gogh
a difficult talent to truly know
unwise love choices-Eugenie Kee&Sien
made him stick to brush not pen

Finance support from brother Theo
loosed his giftings to flow
in dark landscapes&still life
too bad,  without a  wife

From Ecole de Beau Arts a matric
In Antwerp he creates his pics
Then to Paris to mix with the best
lived an artist  life with great zest

Upon the death of Pa Theodorus
Vincent does portraits&busts
as his love life to Margot ails
so also his pointillism fails

He then met Agostina Segatori
& a brief affair the world did see
An interest in all things Japanaise
then to Arles were the sun does blaze

The artists colony  was not a success
Vincent cut off an -ear-but I digress
progressively VG became deluded
'a mad redhead,'the locals said

Genius & delusion marries as one
but a recognisable usp is done
with broad brush& wavy line
a reputation to outlast his time

In Arles he is hospitalised
&unique art realised-
then with a gun suicides
on canvas though his genius resides...

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Providence rode,
I land
On the island
To learn its code
Of conduct, as
taught by Mr. Rhodes,
emeritus professor of jazz,
etiquette & odes

He says it's like an
Amorphous Z,
a
venomous ignominy
that obfuscates your
vexilology
& depletes its logic,
tantalizing a tarantula
with ubiquitous uppity.
It's the maximum malfeasance,
that not even the twerp from Antwerp
can't tolerate
& you've to...

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An oil port

He is looking on to shore and sees an oil terminal
waiting for the pilot, he may arrive today or tomorrow.
Well he is not going ashore at this Arab port it is 
usually boring full of men smoking water pipes talking
excitedly about the next...

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Remembering a dog


When I was young and for us not rich there was
navy academia you could learn engineering, navigation 
and catering, with my eyesight I settled for catering
After going through the grades, I got a certificate that I was
a chief steward. a job which consisted...

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Hendrick van Wueluwe
a master of Frankfurt was he
He developed a new artistic style
lived around Antwerp for a while...

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October 9 is  the 283rd day this year
In history many died and she'd tears
1594  Portuguese empire defeated in Sri Lanka
Bringing an end to the campaign of danture 

1604 kepplers supernova found in the milky way
Who says you need modern science today
The swedes defeated...

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Ironsmith Quentin Metrys
became a noted flemish
He painted both religious&sacrificial
funding the Antwerp school so special...

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The collectors' job is to get the drugs out of the container
and away from the docks,from where they will be transported
to Amsterdam, Germany, Poland, Holand, Lithuania, Latvia,
Estonia, Finland and other parts of Europe.Over 150 tons of
illegal drugs were seized by French authorities in 2022 and
with...

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