TOM DE TOYS (aka Tomithy Holeapple), author of "THE VERY MOMENT" (www.poem2go.de), born 1968 in Jülich (Germany), invented QUANTUM POETRY (www.quantenlyrik.de) in 2001 which was world-premièred at the university of São Paulo thanks to Goethe Institut. Since 2012 De Toys lives in Düsseldorf.

FAZ 1997: "...the monster poet – mostly he works himself up into some kind of ecstasy: the pioneer of consciousness wants to overcome by means of his art any sort of religion..."

taz 1999: "...the one with his 'Unprovoked Appresence' whose essential message is eternal presence..."

Tom de Toys, March 2021 © POEMiE™

Article dedicated to www.100TPC.org

HOW DOES UNDERGROUND WORK IN THE 21ST CENTURY:

HOW POLITICAL IS A CRITICAL POEM?

(My review/vision of 100 "TPC" Thousand Poets for Change)

Accidentally i became in my twenties an activist of the German "social beat literature" movement starting 1993. As a critical poet I was lucky I got to meet over 600 free authors in Germany, Austria and Switzerland that wrote unconventional poems without taboos in German language. Later, i heard that some of them committed suicide, died by diseases or still live but became alcoholics and cannot be found any more. Only a few are nowadays active and even less use digital possibilities.

Meanwhile, I am 53 and still a critical thinker and writer so it was an overwhelming surprise for me in 2013 to find somewhere on the internet that a global network existed since 2011 where poetry performance artists – that were trying to change the world through readings – were connected virtually and even on stage! I decided immediately to take part in that year here in DÜSSELDORF with my most important political poem, "DRE!FACHHELiX" (at the Bauwagen der Demokratie, organized by Wolfram/ARTJANZ) and started promoting the event in our poetry scene. That turned into another surprise: nobody else here in Germany seemed to be interested – could not find anyone else to perform for change! That "social beat" network of my early years was missing. Most german poets were just trying to be "seriously" published, and win "serious" prizes for their boring poems that do not influence society at all. But i told myself: as long as society does not change at all but just the names of presidents and supermarkets the deeper wisdom of my soul agrees that "We have a goal" (Yvonne de la Vega) that goes further than the stupid boredom of surviving everyday life: producing visions for a nicer world of love, peace, empathy and cosmic consciousness, all these "silly" themes of real world poetry that "serious" adults do not like but repress!

All the "embarrassing" teenage feelings of Weltschmerz (Jean Paul 1827) – sadness and longing for truth and justice – are the best feelings a poet can feel. We are not superficial and serious like the never-ending routine of the routine of the routine, and the world needs us to REMEMBER the deeper crazy knowledge: what it means to be ALIVE IN THIS INFINITE UNIVERSE. Therefore, we eventually will need 7.77 billion poets for change one day and we must continue to spread the good news: we are still here! We are not fishes, not trees and not stars – we are the creatures that SPEAK AND WRITE! We are humans and we've got LANGUAGE! And if anything happens to change it will happen because of a new word in a new poem that creates a new feeling for a new world – starting already with one single poet who dares to talk about change even if nobody listens.

So, even if we grow to 100 thousand that listen to each other, I believe it will spread because "language is a virus" (Laurie Anderson 1986) and the missing 7,769,900,000 sisters and brothers will soon become addicted to our beautiful poems about a better world, and will also start writing poems themselves...

Tom de Toys, 16.-23.2.+7.12.2002 + 26.1.2003 © POEMiE™

DRE!FACHHELiX

laß dir nicht erzählen

daß das alles

seine richtigkeit hätte

laß dir nicht erzählen

daß sonstwer oder

ich dich rette

laß dir nicht erzählen

daß jemand wüßte

was passiert und

laß dir auch nicht erzählen

daß einfach keiner wüßte

was passiert denn

sie wissen alle

genau bescheid

WIR WAREN DORT

und haben es gesehn

wir sind es leid

zu viel ist schon geschehn

die halbe welt verhungert

weil der rest nur

in büros rumlungert

dichter denken plötzlich was sie wollen

unsre seele hat nichts zu verzollen

es versteht sich von selbst

daß ich ein weltbürger bin

seitdem meine geburt geschah

es versteht sich von selbst

daß ich liebe brauche

seitdem meine mutter mich sah

es versteht sich von selbst

daß ich kriege als krank empfinde

seitdem ich weiß: WIR SIND DA

es versteht sich von selbst

daß der kosmos unendlich ist

und alles in ihm ziemlich wahr

und daß diese menschliche rasse

mit raumschiffen sich selbst umrundet

und frieden wichtiger wird als klasse

und keine kleingeister politiker werden

und künstler ins parlament einziehn

ansonsten will ich den peinlichkeiten

der ganz normalen dummheit entfliehn

denn meine vision vom echten leben

kennt weder geheimnis noch masterplan

auf meinem konto sind keine millionen

ansonsten tät ich was gegen den wahn

laß dir nicht erzählen

daß das alles von wichtigkeit wäre

überlaß es nicht den andern

ob die welt rechtzeitig umkehre

jeder mensch hat seinen eigenen kopf

pack deine geheimsten wünsche beim schopf

und laß dir nicht erzählen

daß die sehnsucht nach wahrheit verboten sei

überlaß es nicht den andern

ob dein geist gefangen ist oder frei

jeder mensch lebt in seiner eigenen welt

aber nur die liebe ist das was uns zusammenhält

denn wenn wir uns lieben als ob nichts wäre

überlisten wir diese gähnende leere diese diese

diese gähnende leere zwischen den zeilen ja doch

wir müßten uns eigentlich sehr beeilen

und dürften nicht lange in diesem zustand verweilen

die gefahr ist zu groß daß wir plötzlich durchdrehen

daß wir dinge tun die wir danach nicht verstehen

warum hört uns kein gott um gnade flehen

warum stopfen sie schon in der schule erfundene löcher

warum kennt keiner den unterschied zwischen loch und kuhle

es ist nicht selbstverständlich

daß wir halbgebildet bleiben

und es ist auch nicht selbstverständlich

daß wir von tag zu tag nur dahintreiben

ohne einen einzigen klaren gedanken zu fassen

sondern die kriegstreiber weitermachen zu lassen

TOM DE TOYS (real name: Thomas Holzapfel = Crabapple): the author of the german book "MORE NOW – CHANGE OF CONSCIOUSNESS FROM SYMBOLICITY TO PRESENTICITY" was born in Jülich (Germany) in 1968 and lived from 1997 til 2012 in Berlin. He published "Direct Poetry" (poetology of transreligious holEism) under more than 40 pseudonyms for almost three decades. Since 1989 he works actively both as a painter and as a performance artist for the philosophy of holEism. In 1990 he founded the so-called G&GN-Institut ("Institute For Complete Nothing@All"). In 1994 he discovered the theory of E.S. ("Extended Sobriety") whereby authentic (i.e. fulfilled) love poetry can be politicised against the conventional misuse of the expression "love" (as in 95% of all fake love poems "longing" is meant indeed). In 2000 he received the very first NAHBELL prize, a kind of alternative Nobel Prize for german contemporary poetry. In 2001 he invented QUANTUM POETRY which was world-premièred at the university of São Paulo (thanks to Goethe-Institut). Since 2012 De Toys lives in the district Eller Süd of Düsseldorf. His german poetry works as well as his photo art and landscape drawings appear already in many themed compilations (all available books @ www.neurogermanistik.de). Since 1998 De Toys writes short poems and english poems once in a while under the pseudonym of Tomithy Holeapple who translated also some pieces of his german oeuvre. In 2019, after a thirty year break, he started playing free jazz piano again: NONDUALJAZZ.de