Ilze

“Eleanor Baker is een van Afrikaans se beste skrywers en dis jammer dat baie Suid-Afrikaners dit dalk nooit, of te laat, gaan agterkom nie. ”
― André P. Brink

“I opened my veins. Unstoppably
life spurts out with no remedy.
Now I set out bowls and plates.
Every bowl will be shallow.
Every plate will be small.

And overflowing their rims,
into the black earth, to nourish
the rushes unstoppably
without cure, gushes
poetry ...”
― Marina Tsvetaeva, Selected Poems

“I, who know and tell,
to tribes of women,
stories of dolls in pockets,
that rise alive in secret nights
and given sustenance,-
bread and beer -
succour the girl,
separate kernel from chaff
and help her outwit the witch
who smacks her lips
waiting for failure”
― Dorian Haarhoff, Poemegranates

“Some things do not bear telling. I think my father knew this. I think he knew how words can sometimes flatten the deepest emotions or pin them like wild butterflies stunned out of magnificent flight, flimsiest souvenirs of what moved and coloured air like silk. Better to imagine it.”
― Niall Williams, Four Letters of Love