The Earth senses the feet
of a beast crossing her
I am a mountain range
along the river
was here before this water
but adjusted myself to it
It tore me loose
from my family
and made me stand ground
A meteoric crater
was flung at me as a navel
Inside I carry the same substances
as all that did out of the same
arise
Once upon a time I was slumbering
on my mothers bed
that trough the force of elements
however in billions of years
did fall apart
in divers continents
afloat on the primordial ocean
Mortals klimb
down the hair falling loosely on my neck
rest awile
on the curvings of my shoulder
A bumblebee hums by
It goes to their heads
they loose their heart
to my treasures
My treetops rustle
I put my trust in you
whisper you'll be in love with me
as with a lover
For the common welfare
they take samples of my soil
by chipping texture
With ever newer instruments
they try to fathom secrets
of me and mine
If I disclose myself to them
entrust them with everything
they'll blow me up and shovel me away
untill I am worn out
and there is nothing left to take
Sisters that are destitute
lie barren and torn down
on dried up streams
in the deserts
singing shrill laments
wail over their losses
whistling
in time with the whisteling beat of the wind
these old woman wait
as silent witnesses
in an extreme climate
for the change
that the world undergoes
At night one can hear
their rocks cracking
My body is of ancient stone
polished round
by the caress of time
covered with a youthgreen dress
of various herbs and shrubs
that hangs in shreads from my tops
and overtly betrays eroded beauty
Above soft limestone jaws
the wind echoes
in deep earholes
Towards the fall of night
damp vapours pull
over my lips
Sparkling white quartz crystals
form a frontporch of theet
My tongue is a soft pink bridge
grown under seepings
in a often dry bed
Man is a microbe
in the total dark
between pastelcollored
strange clammy shapes
Deep in the back someone is
flashing a searchlight
He walks through the long corridor of the body
In a cave at the end
of my stalactic system
he finds the way out
A rustling silence reigns
on Venushill
Kingferns fan the humid walls
of a very ancient sanctuary
At the height of the day
a crack of sunlight steals
into the small cleft
over this landscape
out of prehistory
A reservation
Slow gravelships
float past the bossom
My brests, observation posts
piercing cliffs
for suicidals
hang over the riverbank
where a pearling ring
of culture
has settled on my fingers
I carry man on my hands
But sometimes I can flare up
Spit sulphur
venemond words
that in hot torrents
walz over all that lives
Then my heart is
hard as granite
my body stirs
I toss
and shake off
all that clutches at me
Then I destroy
all that was arduously built
through a thrust of emotion
endlessly more deep and old
than this irritating teeming
of souls that thought themselves
superior to their environment
The world is trembling
I am the topp of a mass
that jerks on the primordial sea
If I, who am so plump, must move along
how can they, who are as small
as flaring dust
then think to save their parish bodies
As soon as I laugh a second
in abhorrence shudder
or my body vibrates out of joy
they run to their Gods
I watch them go
and know all this
will be in vain
Never do they call on me
I must be too close
I am full of love
and hope for tenderness
My stone can be most soft of Earth
I can make you dizzy with bliss
You may build on me
gather my fruits
climb over me
gather my fruits
climb over me
but you have to respect
the forces
out of which we all came forth
and not split them up
Man is but a flash
a second of my life
Yet I let myself be trampled on
from Hup de Zee, In de Knipscheer 1986
translation into English by Barbara Mohr
Poet Diana Ozon has been a stage performer and phenomenon in literature, punk and graffiti since the late 1970s. She gives gigs and performances at home and abroad and is a guest lecturer in poetry. Ozon's works include 14 books of poetry, 2 novels and 2 audio books. Recent collections including Hartspanne and Zwerfzang were published by Passage publishers.