Wunderkammer takes place in a world after the great calamity—war, climate collapse, humanity itself. A dystopian vista set in both combination and contrast with memories—not only of the past, but also as a hope of still being able to hold on to those memories later. The text tells the story of two people who have only each other left in a desolate world, and even that final connection is uncertain. These last survivors yearn for hope, but their courage is evaporating. One thing is certain: the Earth will endure.
The poem is part of a new book to be published in autumn 2026, Het onachtzame van onze huid (The Unheeding Drift of Our Skin). The accompanying music, Thousands of Poppies, was composed by Jody Grandclement, with drums by Alexandre Detry.
The project is part of the subthemes Writing After – Catastrophe, Memory, and the Archive of Loss, Unruly Forms – Experiments in the Poetic Wild.
Author
Steven Graauwmans
Steven Graauwmans is a poet and painter whose work explores duality through language and image, oil and pen, brush and word. His poems and paintings open parallel realities shaped by coincidence and slowness, functioning as wormholes into spaces where abstraction and reality blur in a delicate, unstable balance.
He has published five poetry collections. A new anthology, Het onachtzame van onze huid (The Unheeding Drift of Our Skin), is scheduled for publication in autumn 2026.
