Karin Giphart

latest update 15th December, 2003 (click for Dutch version)

biografie	poetry:	contact
	Existence, 2002

BIOGRAFIE

Karin Ellen Giphart (Dordrecht, 29th October 1968) is a latecomer. She holds an MA in English Literature and has specialised in modes of narratives. In 2003 she made her debut with a novel, which was published by Nijgh & Van Ditmar. Like her brother Ronald (also a Dutch novelist) she can't stop writing, but she is also a poet and singer/songwriter. Furthermore, she has written a biography in the form of a fairy tale about her mother, former PvdA (Labour) MP Wijnie Jabaaij. She hopes to publish this in 2005, on the 10th anniversary of her mother's death.

On 9th November 2002 she performed at the Crossing Border Festival.

Karin lives in Amsterdam with her two kids.

In August 2002 she visited, as a special correspondent of the Algemeen Dagblad and Rottend Staal, the International Society of Poets Convention 2002 in Washington, together with her friend Toña Wong Chung.

One of the poets she met there was Stephen Dunn. In response to his poem 'Creators', she wrote the poem 'Existence'.

Please browse www.google.com for more information about Karin Giphart.

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EXISTENCE

To this day
the bowl looks down on her
with softspoken cries
of unabaited shame.
It is a twisted fate
winning a mindless game.

Customs had asked her
Golf?
No.
Tennis?
No. Poetry.
Wow.

They quickly let her pass.
They oohd her.
They aaahd her.
They believed the charade.
A winner out of her
The bowl had made.

Poets and passion, prizes and shows
To this day she doesn't know
if she was like the bowl
a mere example
to excite the masses and silence the critics
or if they truly liked her poem.

The bowl beckons her attention
in vain today
she is writing a poem
that she will never enter
in any contest nor pay a fee for again
this poem will not need to prove

its worthiness is its existence.

CONTACT
Karin Giphart: info@karingiphart.nl

UITGEVERIJ
Nijgh & Van Ditmar
Singel 262
1016 AC Amsterdam
tel: +31-(0)20-551.12.62
fax: +31-(0)20-639.19.68

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This page is part of the daily poetry newspaper: Rottend Staal Online

© translation Willem Groenewegen / Rottend Staal Online 2003. All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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