Andrew Cartwright
Andrew Cartwright was chosen as the third Tilburg University Campus Poet in 2009. The then 42-year-old Englishman was the first Campus Poet who was not a student but an employee – Cartwright teaches English at the Language Center – at Tilburg University.
From a young age, Cartwright was busy writing poems and short stories. He studied English Literature & Language in Liverpool and took a Master’s program in American Literature, specializing in Modern American Poetry & Painting. In 1995, a number of his poems were published in the compilation X24 (Black Dog Press, London). Initially he wrote only in English but he increasingly combines English and Dutch in a playful way.
Best Karate Still Inside It bothered her that they had used an adult
Actress to voice the lead character in
The Dutch TV version of Pippi Longstocking
The screeching and squawking
Mockery of girlish speech
Gave her headaches
And made the paint peel
The Puritan Roundheads of the English Civil War
Smashed the faces off statues in churches
She felt she had been cheated out of art
When she got home
From her latest binge on sacred buildings
She imagined how the faces might have looked
Often they found a place in her dreams
Where the 17th century Taliban couldn't reach
She was pissed off whenever the BBC warned her
A program contained strong language
She was as averse to euphemism as she was to cheap stair carpets
She would not let the expressions 'drie keer niks'
Or 'doe even normaal' pass her lips
She had four pets:
A monkey named Idiom
A snake called Slang
A parrot, Paradox
And a pig by the name of Ham
Trapped in the web of love
They co
-existed