Learning by doing,
doing things slow,
slow meaning half of
the speed that you know

Slow down your breath
and the beat of your heart
making things better
make a new start

Slower is better and
good for your brains,
as it helps to avoid
any stress on your veins

Learn to enjoy this
look and see more
right where you are
as you open the door

Take a new step standing
firm on the ground
breathe and enjoy all
the things to be found

Eelco van der Waals
5 August 2025

Horizons shift slowly
where we are, here on deck
with open water all around

carrying our boat
to unknown land
with every wave and
wind that blows

This journey has no end
but ports in a row
bringing cargoes and fixes
after rough and calm seas

All questions posed
by currents and winds
you answer holding
your hand on the helm

steering the bow of the boat
with the flow and then higher
to stay on your course
with time on your side

Eelco van der Waals
4 August 2025

Getting older is a daily thing
ice gets thinner underneath your weight
and vulnerability is growing
in the mirrors that you pass

A vein in your head says no
and oxygen is blocked to your lip
that goes hanging, making words
different with a mumbling sound

Doctors are there, checking and
prescribing medicine to conquer
lasting effects after one night
in a hospital bed like a boat at sea

Every reason to be grateful and to
write poetry learning for now and
ever, expressing your gratitude,
celebrating vulnerability

Eelco van der Waals
3 August 2025

Patterns woven day by day
in the workshop of your mind

all throughout childhood
getting tighter all the time
so that they at a certain spot
appear to be unchangeable.

Up till the turning point where
sudden signals shake you up
with threats ahead for life or death
and everythings stands still.

Away is all fixed certainty
from this new viewing point
where you take deeper breaths
and reset means a brandnew start.

Eelco van der Waals
2 August 2025

Two feet going forward
one foot at a time, giving
every step a new direction
on the tracks of change

Who's in charge here?
the eye sees the path to go
the ear hearing fresh winds blow
the mind seems the one to know

Yet two feet shape their way
going further step by step
to targets and to destiny
where things come round

All is choice and choice is all
links together build the chain
of small events in a stream
flowing to the great blue sea

Eelco van der Waals
1 August 2025

Hospital bed
like a boat in the night
drifting on waves
of uncertainty

machinery blinking
on the pulse of your arm,
beeps on and off like
a lighthouse at sea -

your vessel reaches
the harbour of dawn
where white-coated sailors
enter the gangway

bringing news and measures
of a safe journey home after
a bumpy ride. You disembark
on shaky feet in gratitude.

Eelco van der Waals
29 July 2025

Time

Time is a tube that
connects you to ever
the past at one end
and the future the other

Time is the moment
this photo was taken
your first year at school
with your class in the yard

The looks are still there
expectations forever
caught by the shutter
that day in the sun,

decades ago now, many
hopes later. Still learning
what life is connected
by time.

Eelco van der Waals