To a New Sealand

Peter Theunynck’s body houses twin souls: a virtuoso aesthete and a contrary troublemaker; a mild melancholic and a snappy hero of the resistance; a whistling nature-lover and a protesting city-dweller. This division does not lead to poetic conflict but to a Theunynckian mixture of sensitivity and obstinacy.

The volume 'Pan American Airlines & Co' got Peter Theunynck off to a flying start. A focus on flight in all its permutations binds the cycles together into a consistently constructed whole. The collection was very well received and was nominated for the C. Buddingh’ prize for best debut.  In Theunynck’s work, in fact, everything takes flight: words, verses, stanzas, cycles and collections, all apparently as light as feather, surround man, nature, art and society.

One of the dead poets churning in Theunynck’s bowels is the sensitive-symbolist poet Karel van de Woestijne, to whom Peter Theunynck devoted a biography. Rage, loss and longing also are the pillars of the ornate poems in 'To a New Sealand', a language expedition full of love poems and satirical verses, rhythmic songs and lyrics on nature.