Annie Reniers     

(Flanders-Belgium)

ask the stones
even the smallest
and they will give answer
ask the trees
even the tallest
and they will nod
ask the water
even the stillest
and it will part itself with tracks
ask the people
and they will fall silent
but looking up at a black bird
they will point toward the light.

Annie Reniers

Translation: J. Sorkin - Eugène Van Itterbeek (c) Annie Reniers, 1995. Published in The Iowa Review, Volume 25, no. 3, Fall 1995. Poem supplied by the author.

Annie Reniers, born 1941 in Brussels studied German philology and philosophy in Brussels where she now lecturers Aesthetics and history. Annie Reniers is a most active poet, having published nearly two dozens of poetry books, mainly in Dutch, but a couple written in French. She has been awarded the Hugues C. Pernath prize. In cooperation with Germain Droogenbroodt she translated an anthology of French poetry from Belgium and a bilingual anthology of modern Italian poetry, published by POINT Editions.


POINT Editions published three collections of her poetry:
”Vergeetader”, 1988; “Luchtgeest”, 1995; and “Zoals het aanreiken van een zon”, 1997