Saint Nicholas was thinking what he would give you… Anyone who doesn’t get further than those two lines could go to fast poet Mischa van Huijstee today. He helps poets in Assen who are struggling with their Sinterklaas poem.
Van Huijstee: “I start with the end. If those two final lines rhyme with each other and there’s a nice joke in it… I think that’s a good start. And then I just have to work for that.”
Armed with pen and paper, the former city poet sat at a table in MFA Kloosterveste in Assen. People who still came to do Sinterklaas shopping in the shopping center could drop by immediately. So was Gerda Walvius from Assen, who bought a warm sweater for her daughter.
Walvius: “My daughter has had a very difficult year. She just deserves a very nice gift and a very good poem.”