My Opa was a carpenter. He was an ambitious, industrious man who built a new life for his family in northern British Columbia after the Vanderkwaak clan lost almost everything in Holland during the second world war.
Opa was a difficult man to feel close to, but at the same time, his vocation in carpentry and his example as an artist have made an impression on my siblings and cousins that is very close indeed.
Open Heart Forgery is a local underground poetry publication that makes and distributes 8.5x11 poetry brochures every month. They are a delight and I am proud to have had one of my poems appear in one of their issues every year since 2023.
“Leendert Vanderkwaak (1931–2020).” Open Heart Forgery 15, no. 5 (2024).
