Lars Bregonje: campus poet 2012

Lars Bregonje is the new Campus Poet of Tilburg University. This was announced Thursday afternoon in the Sports Café of the university.

The first-year Liberal Arts student was chosen unanimously by the jury that praised his style, rhythm and choice of words. The new Campus Poet received his prize from Henk Ellermann of Academic Forum – the organizer of the competition.

Throughout the afternoon there were performances by Tilburg city poet Esther Porcelijn, student poet Robert Proost, and ex Campus Poets Andrew Cartwright (2009), Nathan de Groot (2010), and Karel Soudijn (2011).

The Campus Poet will give his poetic comments on university matters during 2012. His poetry will also be published regularly in Univers magazine.

Below you’ll find one of the poems with which Bregonje won the competition.

Tilburgania I

The small city over there is a short cloudburst, a miniature galaxy
turned on its side. There are notes inside cash registers, dildos
in lonely night closets. A student revising Latin, the original HTML.

I know of the après-class drunkenness – that trembling fear
of growing up imperfectly. The buzz of different tongues, the music,
the swapping of muscle & saliva in student cafés and on the street.

International Law, International Business Administration, International
Blowjobs. I know of Cognitive Neuroscience (New York, 1998)
and that to grow up is to grow up wisely.

(I also know that somewhere nearby there?s a young couple with
sleepy eyes of lovemaking – their legs warmly entangled – and to them
that moment is more important than all these other things)