With the economy of proverbs and the psychological insight of a novel, Toon Tellegen’s acclaimed sequence Raptors depicts the dynamics of a family held hostage by the mood-swings and histrionics of a father, a figure both comic and terrifying, grotesque and pathetic. Tellegen’s mercurial imagination evokes the dark archetypes of European folklore and reanimates them with a sophisticated sense of the endless fluidity of relationships, the instability of interpretation. An improvisation on a theme, circling back to ‘my father’ at the start of each poem, Raptors builds to a story without narrative, its extravagant imaginative leaps into absurdity held within a framework of tender observation. Toon Tellegen’s translator Judith Wilkinson has worked closely with the poet to create English poems that capture the startling clarity and inventiveness of the original Dutch. Raptors has the rewarding intensity of a modern classic.

Cover painting Mary Harman, Keeper. Reproduced by kind permission of the artist.

Contents

Introduction by Judith Wilkinson    ix
Preface by Toon Tellegen    3

I
My father    moved heaven and earth    7
        searched for water    8
        bit the dust    9
        stuck to his guns    10
        picked bitter fruits    11
        applied a double standard    12
        got into deep water    13
        washed his hands in innocence    14
        was in the seventh heaven    15
        stewed in his own juice    16
        played with fire    17
        became down and out    18
        was on cloud nine    19
        knew how to live    20
        retraced his steps    21
        twisted the facts    22
        wanted to alleviate suffering    23
        was a book    24
        was in the air, like a rumour    25
        sat on a mountain    26
        created the world    27
        plucked up all his courage    28
        looked for injustice    29
        tied himself into a thousand knots    30
        abandoned all hope    31
        was speechless    32
        looked for a needle    33
        was wide of the mark    34
        poured salt in wounds    35
        stayed out of the picture    36
        who rose and sank in esteem    37
        screamed blue murder    38
        did not let sleeping dogs    39
II
        was in a terrible state    43
        threw dust about    44
        put on a show    45
        let a cup    46
        kicked down doors    47
        washed the dirty linen in public    48
        let the fire run its course    49
        had the last word    50
        blew such a big trumpet    51
        was a human being    52
        destroyed things    53
        was happy    54
        soft-soaped the guilty    55
        was every bit    56
        kept up appearances    57    
        acted in good faith and took the smooth    58
        looked for someone, just one person    59
        slept    60
        dragged things by the hair    61
        was in a tight corner    62
        who blows up rocks, blows away people, blows
            out peace    63
        looked in a mirror    64
        thanked my mother    65
        was immense and limitless    66
        made things hot for people    67
        how fathomless was the depth of his shame    68
        there was a gaping hole in him    69
        looked for love    70
        was a mistake    71    
        died a thousand deaths    72
        couldn’t comprehend himself any more    73


III
        and then for hours, days    77
        fished for answers    78
        was everywhere    79
        slept through headaches, hazards and
            uncontrollable    80
        was gone    81
        explained himself    82
        behold the tears of my father    83
        choked on his daily bread    84
        created pain    85
        bowed to the inevitable    86
        talked gibberish    87
        racked his brains    88
        was already himself    89
        promised everything, pledged everything    90
        was nobody    91
        is a tiny bit – one millionth – deader    92
        begot surprise    94
        didn’t waste his breath    95
        wanted to love my mother    96
        got under the skin    97
        was at his wits’ end    98
        buried his head    99
        found happiness    100
        saw ghosts    101
        was so small    102
        quite honestly, really wanted only one thing    103
        didn’t know that he was in despair    104
        smashed rocks, smashed mud    105
        was in safe hands, was extolled to the skies    106
        was coming to an end    107
        began to confuse things    108
        was something    109
My mother    stood in the doorway    110