Maatstaf. Jaargang 39
(1991)– [tijdschrift] Maatstaf–
Auteursrechtelijk beschermd
[pagina 67]
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away. Brood met kaas en worst,
uitsmijters, biscuits met muis, koek
en Kerstkrans at Christmas tied with red
ribbons. After three tries
we gave up oliebollen on old year. Too
hot and all that blue haze
getting at the pictures. The smell
hung around for days and it wasn't the same
outside on the bar-b-q. You had to
have snow and anijsmelk and we weren't
in a Brueghel painting ‘skating on the edge
of a pond.’ (Auden)
Flowers though were constant. Always
on the table a vase of sun
on the thick rich tapestry hanging
quite like a 17th century ‘still-life
with roemer’. Even the plate (Willem Kalf)
reminds - blue-white porcelain
symbol of longevity. Cobalt
of purest sky and big
bowls of fruit de Heem would have treasured. (1606-1684)
Brass candlesticks aglow with polish,
a ‘pronkjuweel’ under colonial verandah-
-end windows in kauri and red, green
and timelesss Vermeer yellow
but different entirely. A reality
Siddell might have painted, catching
and reflecting off objects in a room
not even half a lifetime old where everything
is straight-backed and upright. Solid
heart oak, well travelled, diffused
with a warm light also
from the portraits on the wall smiling
a little sternly at their own
predicament. A view from Delft
in Dargaville. ‘Vanitas vanitatum/
ijdelheid der ijdelheden/
all is vanity.’
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