Photo: Geja Kuiken

Poetic life story of a shrimp fisherman

Language: Frisian & Fisherman’s Yarn

In 2020 the poet Syds Wiersma engaged in some talks with Tsjerk Visser, the oldest active shrimp fisherman from the small Frisian village of Wierum. Though Visser has reached the respectable age of 94, he still goes out fishing with his son Monte at the Wadden Sea every day. Thus a cycle of poems titled Achterdyk (Back dike) was created based on Visser’s stories as well as his unique fisherman’s idiom. The disappearing words from the largely gone world of the Frisian shrimp fishery are temporarily revived in Syds’ poetry.

In Achterdyk Syds recites his poems. Sjoukje Visser and Ruben Bus – fellow members of his band DOT WIER'UM – accompany the poems with music. Amazing detail: the music as well as the soundscapes were composed by Tsjerk Vissers youngest daughter Sjoukje Visser.