Prose and poetry by Leen Raats
My poems “Beyond these mountains,” “What I want to tell my inner child” and “Signs of life” were published in Writenow, an online literary publication based in Nigeria. That means that I can cross Africa off my wish list, after Europe, North America and Asia. Because secretly I want to publish all over the world – literally.
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My poem Chronic was published in the Spring 2024 edition of Pleiades, in the special folio ‘On Disability’. Pleiades: Literature in Context is published twice a year by the University of Central Missouri and features work from both established and upcoming writers from around the world.
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The Greyhound Journal is an online and print magazine based in Hong Kong. They publish work with a historical angle. Their periodic publications contain stories and poems in both Mandarin and English. When I came across their website some time ago, I immediately realized two things: 1. I want to be part of this and 2. I want to send in my poem Loam.
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Today the 24 spring issue of Rathalla Review came out, featuring my story You shouldn’t move an old tree.
Rathalla Review is a literary magazine published by students of Rosemont College, just outside Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, USA).
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Grief is feminine. I greet her, an old acquaintance
with whom I grew up, grew askew
who pulled at me my entire youth, dragged me
into a bottomless darkness. So often I fell.
Sometimes I would lie there, paralyzed by a fear
that seemed to come from nowhere, and yet so real.
L’enfer c’est les autres but hell is heaven
compared to what sometimes rages in my chest.
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Influencers without influence are looking for
the hippest hashtags for their Tiktok videos
dancing to the beat of the algorithm.
Incompetent experts by experience
whose unfinished projects grow too fast like children
give TED Talks about the power of failure
with a voice like the melody
of a lonely pinball machine.
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My name is Treesje. I was born on the right bank of the river Scheldt. I am 29, afraid of turning 30, and even more afraid of not turning 30. I hate soccer, cava, and boring people. When I’m home alone, I dance around the living room. I am married to a Sven and mother to a Jade. My husband wants a second child. I always have a window open, even when it’s freezing. I want to feel a breeze.
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My poem “Room to Breathe” appeared in Crannóg Magazine
(issue 60, Spring 2024), a leading Irish literary magazine. I am one of
45 writers published in this issue.
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It’s the music that saved me
on long days underneath the roof window
of a drafty row house on a street
where no one wanted to know me.
At night I dissolved into crowds
like sugar in coffee. Invisible
but everywhere my shadow slipped
along facades, over thresholds where riffs
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Leen writes 