Onderstaand gedicht heb ik ‘ontdekt’ in de bundel ‘Restarting the world’ van de Amerikaanse dichter Leonard Nathan (1924-2007). Rillingen krijg ik ervan!

THEM/The ones with the still and remote faces,/who smile sometimes but aren’t happy,/frown sometimes but aren’t dissapointed,/who have said goodbye long before seperation,/who look unflinching at the glory/of the almond tree in blossom,/or at black distance without stars/to relieve it – they are the ones/who know just when and how/and perhaps why, the ones/I watch for signs.//When they pack and leave/I pack and leave. When they sigh/and stay I stay.//They are like experienced waiters/who see it all in a glance, who know/their job and never confuse it/with serious business, who remember/what the occasion needs and wait/till they’re called for to do what’s required/with no fuss and the few right words.//They are like experienced ex-priests/who still can give the lost directions for another world but have chosen this one/because it demands all their faith/just to remain human.//To them the outburst of the almond/is only another time diversion/already foreseen in the cold necessity/of December when the tree stood there/naked of all but essentials.//To them we are like children/begging for a good story/or the trick of dissapearing coins./They listen patiently to our babble/but never take their eyes off the door.

Pieuw!