Writings through Body, Mind & Soul

Phantom ParentsDavid Enker

Phantom Parents

I created a 200-page book with a compilation of my work up until about 2020. The proof copy I just received from ezbook.nl looks great! Now it is time to reach out. Let’s try that crowdfunding thing!       CROWDFUNDING…
Off the sleighDavid Enker

Back to nursery…on a sleigh

Haarlem, Thursday 11 February 2021 Even though the lockdown is still ongoing (a lot of shops, hairdressers, etc. remain closed) as of this week, the day-care centres and lower schools have opened this Monday the 8th of February. This also…
Daddy Yaron BikingDavid Enker

The first 2 days of lockdown

Haarlem, 15 December 2020 What did I learn? The nurseries and schools are closed. So where does everyone go? To the public playgrounds...all together, at the same time. Pfff... what a mess. I spoke with a dad because Yaron wanted to play…
David Enker

The Christmas Lockdown

Haarlem, 15 December 2020   Today is the last day of my son’s day care. Full lockdown #2 starts tomorrow. Yaron is 2,5 years old, so he is too young to be left alone. As my wife is the one with the important job I will be the one…
Zzzzzzz......DDavid Enker

Full of joy

Haarlem, 25 June 2020 Dear Yaron, Welcome to the world my lovely son. At 2 years, you seem to be having a strong will of your own, bordering on stubbornness. Like your mother, you are operating independently just fine. God only knows who…
David Enker

Oma Z

It is somewhere in the mid-90s as I visit my grandmother in The Hague. I am in my mid-twenties. Normally the whole family would be there, usually on her birthday. But this is not her birthday, it is just me and her. Her reputation of a divider…
David Enker

Toen wij uit Engeland vertrokken

In mei 2011 kwam de Nederlandse journalist en schrijver Joris Luyendijk in Engeland wonen. Afgelopen zomer is hij teruggekeerd naar Nederland en schreef over zijn tijd in Groot-Brittannië een afscheidsbrief in Vrij Nederland. Hij blikt terug…

Love, Prince

It was already over with my girlfriend when I went to see Prince live in concert in 1992 in Rotterdam. Not that she knew it already, I hadn't told her yet. This coincided with the looming termination of my physics study at uni and leaving the…
David Enker

The Path

An exercise in expression   Introduction What are the modes one can resort to when faced with the challenges of life? Here is a possible scenario with 10 modes: 1. Artistic / Literary mode “Art is whether or not there…

Pushing Doors

  7/7 - 10 years on and the creation of a story   Haarlem, 7 July 2015 It is 10 years ago since that fatal Thursday morning of the 7th of July of 2005 in London when one of four Islamic suicide bombers blew himself up in the Piccadilly…

Bullies in the Park

Not too long ago – in the light of eternity – when I was a kid, about 9 years old, I was walking on clouds. I wanted to reach the sky you see, and now and then I got pretty close. Every day I was walking to school through the…

The Rothko Light

Art isn’t about what you see.

Until the end of the world

The ground underneath the feet of the quiffed reporter and his talking dog is heating up so much that the asphalt is melting. At the same time, a mysterious star appears in the evening sky, next to the big dipper. The curious reporter decides…

Wisdom behind the gambling place

Avi was back in London. He’d been back in Israel for family matters for a year or so during which I’d paid him a visit, but now he’s back here, though I’m not sure why. He wouldn’t admit it, but I think life must have felt…
David Enker

Naked

I enter the hospital room and there he is, sitting up straight in his bed with his bald head hanging low into his hands. Even though I can’t see his face, his thin long fingers reveal his bones. He doesn’t seem to notice me. Outside the…
David Enker

Silence

Today was Memorial Day, during which the victims of the Second World War in Holland are being commemorated, just like every year on the 4th of May. I realised I had actually never done anything about it, not with other people anyway,…

The Man with the Hat

Maybe the man with the hat is my real father. Hiding behind his newspaper four seats away in the train. I spoke with him over the phone a couple of weeks ago, but all I had was this tiny photograph of him. His face was pushed half out of…

Just Like Mine

The sand nestled itself between my little toes. I had never been to the beach with my mother before. Usually when I visited her we would go to the park or just cycle around the city, with me on the little seat at the front of her bike, my eyes…
Kings CrossDavid Enker

Avi & Shiri

It was not long after Israel’s Second Lebanon war in 2006 that I met Avi. I was working in London at a famous ad agency on Knightsbridge, between Hyde Park and Harrods. Before Avi started working at “the banner factory” as it was called,…
David Enker

Looking for Izzy

Izzy was missing the other day. We had started to let her out only a couple of weeks ago. Enough to get used to the gardens and not to get lost, but she isn't too bright. And she’s fat, too. So I went looking beyond our balcony,…
David Enker

Haarlem

The Flower City has recently been adopted as my new home town.                 More pictures here.