Painfully Honest

Michel van der Stel, M.A. is the eternal Romantic who sees himself as writing in the Wordsworthian tradition by making the seemingly less important stand out, and thereby putting it on the same scales as the more monumental episodes in life. For him, the smaller and the larger events are of equal importance. In 1986, as a budding student of the English Language and Literature at the University of Leiden, one of the Netherlands’ top universities, he became utterly enamoured with poetry. Michel draws inspiration for his poetry from his immediate surroundings. His relationships with his children, his ex-girlfriends, his family are explored unashamedly. He is Don Quixote on a quest for his Dulcinea del Toboso. He is a critic of society’s ethics. He is out there in every line, pervasive and serious; and simultaneously tongue-in-cheek. His writing is organic, based on the natural patterns that occur. He is the optimist throughout, even in the darkest hour. His belief in a makeable future keeps him standing up straight and gives even his most miserable hour a comic edge. This is his second published collection of poetry, spanning two decades of emotions and thoughts. Michel van der Stel is a teacher of English in his home city Rotterdam.