Sonnets in Amsterdam

Outside the American Hotel, occupied by the Germans naturally in WW2. Along the Marnixstraat there is a plaque to the fallen Dutch resistance executed there.

Gestapo HQ a stone’s throw away, where the Max Eeuweplein now stands. And where we work the Comedy Cafe a weekend or two a month.

History is so ever present here in Europa. Often a cunning facade of what once was. But sometimes you enter a space that lives and breathes its origin hundreds of years before.

The Leidseplein is to my offscreen left, the Vondelpark off right. Since the new fountain was installed some 2 years ago this is the square’s configuration.

This sonnet is the start of an afternoon’s experimenting with camera and sonnet with city as background.

‘Let me not’ number 116 is almost as famous as ‘Shall I compare thee’ number 18. Known popularly as the wedding sonnet:

That was the furthest thing from my mind as it happened.

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