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700 · May 2024
[ The guests run away ]
Zywa May 2024
The guests run away,

the staff is left with the feast --


left with the rumours.
Novel "Shalimar the Clown" (2005, Salman Rushdie), chapter Boonyi, § 1

Collection "Low gear"
699 · Apr 2022
[ An automatic door ]
Zywa Apr 2022
An automatic

door for everything that moves --


is closed still open.
Collection "Half The Work"
699 · May 2023
Evill Intent
Zywa May 2023
The people here
are not quite grown up
They live past inconveniences

So I'm gonna settle it
Like a parent for their own good
Comment is all in the game

I don't mind, we have to move on
Who does not act, is manipulated
and my own preferences
don't appear out of the blue
I have experience

I chip and wipe away the chips
I am a doer, a maker
No expensive gestures
no desperate remedies
to reassure desperate patients

I know what I'm doing, there are goals
to achieve and worlds to win
with ambition

the seed of my misdeeds
my taunted pride
to want to achieve something
Evill Intent: Misdeed (out of pride, subordinating fellow human beings "for their own good" to an interest that has your preference)

About pride: poem "Evil Eye" (see May 18th)

Collection "Mastress"
698 · Sep 2022
[ It's normal to wish ]
Zywa Sep 2022
It's normal to wish

to be special, do you think --


you are that common?
"Monterosso mon amour" (2022, Ilja Leonard Pfeiffer)

Collection "Palace of the Night"
698 · Aug 2023
[ Happiness: the joy ]
Zywa Aug 2023
Happiness: the joy

of the quiet awareness --


of your existence.
Autobiographical notes "Les rêveries du promeneur solitaire" ("Reveries of the Solitary Walker", 1776, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, published posthumously in 1778), chapter "Cinquième promenade" ("Fifth walk")

Collection "Inmost [1]"
695 · Sep 2022
Knowing who we are
Zywa Sep 2022
I passed my parents
from much younger to one and a half
times older than they, more serious
I became, a grandmother I became

Experience, recognizing
my life in friends
seeing it again
in the children and grandchildren

Sticking together
our bodies familiar
with defects, pain
and messy memories

And now I want to leave
away from the timeless artificial light
of the hospital, slip away
dreamily in your memories
Collection "Lilith's Powers" #70
693 · Jun 2022
[ The broiling summer ]
Zywa Jun 2022
The broiling summer

undresses the girls, all those --


beautiful giraffes.
Long legs and small shorts

"La Superba" (2013, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer) - Lied "Fatou yo"

Collection "Palace of the Night"
693 · Aug 2022
[ My heart is racing ]
Zywa Aug 2022
My heart is racing,

it spins like a wheel, craving --


to roll unto you.
"Let me roll it" (1973, Paul McCartney & Wings, album "Band on the run")

Collection "Loves Tricks Gains Pains in 60s and 70s"
692 · Mar 2024
[ The single greatest ]
Zywa Mar 2024
The single greatest

economic power is --


bribeandcorruption.
Novel "The Golden House" (2017, Salman Rushdie), chapter (2-) 23

Baksheesh = Gift, Tip >> "briberyandcorruption"

Collection "Low gear"
691 · Feb 2024
[ Forgive me, I won't ]
Zywa Feb 2024
Forgive me, I won't

demand so much anymore --


and then receive more.
Song "Bird on the Wire" (1968, Leonard Cohen, about Leonard Cohen and Marianne Jensen, 1969 album "Songs from a Room"; 1968 release by Judy Collins, album "Who Knows Where the Time Goes")

Collection "Known"
691 · Feb 2022
[ Again no message ]
Zywa Feb 2022
Again no message

in a bottle, no true love --


beginning for me.
"Vindeling" ("Findling", 2019, Vonne van der Meer)

Collection "VacantVoid"
691 · Nov 2023
[ Beware, your body ]
Zywa Nov 2023
Beware, your body

is a prey for the devil --


He makes you hungry.
Novel "Ierse nachten" (1942, "Irish Nights", Simon Vestdijk), chapter 4-4, Letters to Saint Patrick (AD 1859)

Collection "Inmost [2]"
690 · Feb 2022
[ A downpour: people ]
Zywa Feb 2022
A downpour: people

run to the ice-cream parlour --


to lick waiting time.
Collection "Between where"
690 · Jul 2024
[ I'm searching the book ]
Zywa Jul 2024
I'm searching the book

you gave: you are everywhere --


you're so deceptive!
Autobiographical account "De harde kern" - 1 ("The *******" - 1, 1992, Frida Vogels) - Summer 1968 in Cupra Marittima (below Ascona)

Collection "Trench Walking"
690 · Jan 2024
[ Climb up the ladder ]
Zywa Jan 2024
Climb up the ladder

and look next to you, a snake --


is waiting for you!
Novel "Midnight's Children" (1981, Salman Rushdie), chapter 2-2 "Snakes and Ladders" (the board game "Moksha Patamu")

Collection "Low gear [2]"
Zywa Jul 2022
She sweeps up the shards

and she doesn't recognise them:


the shards of a man.
Unemployment

"Pieces of a Man" (1971, Gil Scott-Heron)

Collection "Low gear"
689 · May 2022
[ Shoulders to shoulders ]
Zywa May 2022
Shoulders to shoulders,

the flower bursts open, spurts --


away in snap-weeds.
Rugby scrum

Collection "PumicePieces"
688 · Jul 2023
[ I feel so at home ]
Zywa Jul 2023
I feel so at home

in the world, with the tomcat --


curled up on my bed.
Poem "Sover i sängen med en katt" ("Sleeping in bed with a cat", 2002, Lars Gustafsson)

Collection "Specialities"
688 · May 2023
Scent of wisteria
Zywa May 2023
You say: attention
is the most loving thing
you can give

I answer: carefreeness
is the most loving thing
you can have

It often eludes me
Then I lie awake
because I can't do anything

as long as there are no certainties
no current measurements and slices
for relief or a new plan

I want to try everything
to gain time
exhaust all my strength

adapt
and save who I am
what I'm worth

my head full of purplish blue fragrance
which turns my feelings blue
Blue Bluish blue
For Maria Godschalk

Collection "On living on [1]"
688 · Sep 2023
[ My attention, where ]
Zywa Sep 2023
My attention, where

does it go, what do I want --


to see of the world?
Collection "WoofWoof"
686 · May 2023
Fallen angel
Zywa May 2023
What is home, everyone knows
from experience or lack
or both, as I do

And still
I know what I missed
when I think about it

Not often, at last
I got my home
And still

I am the saviour, the angel
I have practised to be
from childhood

I hesitate at the old Christmas card
with me as a little angel, back then
when I got a cat as a present

Stars on my white dress
gilt-edged wings
and a halo

But unable
to definitely redeem
my family, their desires

Wounded, I crashed
bipolar between heaven and earth
between love and failure
Photo: Christmas 1986; Maria is 4 years old, her brother is 12

For Maria Godschalk

Collection "Bruises"
685 · Jan 2023
[ I am lost, so what ]
Zywa Jan 2023
I am lost, so what

can I say? Nothing other --


than that I don't mind.
Electro Symphonic Orchestra / Colin Benders (June 23rd, 2018 at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam), part 1 of block 2

Collection "Summer birds"
Zywa Nov 2023
There's a strange hand with

pointing fingers on my thigh --


and it excites me.
Painting "The Loneliness of Skin" (1983, Marlene Dumas)

Collection "Eyes lips chest and belly"
684 · Aug 2022
[ I really love you ]
Zywa Aug 2022
I really love you,

but what you expect from me --


I can't bear no more.
"Testament" (2009, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer)

Collection "Palace of the Night"
683 · Dec 2023
[ I really need to ]
Zywa Dec 2023
I really need to

go outside and get some air --


I need the silence.
Family hustle and bustle - Column "Je veter zit misschien los" ("Your lace may be loose", 2023, Marcel van Roosmalen)

Collection "Within the walls"
682 · Oct 2021
Lost in language
Zywa Oct 2021
He drove me to the sea
I make small steps
barefoot

Barefoot steps in the cold
sand, I do my best
I don't lie down

The toes of my feet
comes towards me
Next to his steps

We have done this
before, nothing wrong
The wind was always blowing

salt into my hair
foam into my words
playing hide and seek

inside my head, and the seagulls
squawk shrilly through it
I get lost in language

differences and bad
connections, and still
he does not notice
For Maria Godschalk #139 --- Collection "On living on"
681 · Oct 2023
[ Well, I used to cry ]
Zywa Oct 2023
Well, I used to cry,

but I stopped, because no one --


cared, no one at all.
Film "Past Lives" (2023, Celine Song)

Collection "VacantVoid"
678 · Mar 2023
[ After the garden ]
Zywa Mar 2023
After the garden

party: deflated balloons --


Colourful cherries.
Collection "On living on [1]"
678 · Jan 2023
Home
Zywa Jan 2023
Also worlds that we don't have
and have not even experienced
we can cherish, skaters
on the canals of the eleven cities
and those of Amsterdam

We know it from photos and
paintings, fashion from grandma's time
pharaohs, Indians and dinosaurs
the splendour of microorganisms
and the blue ice of glaciers

where cows now graze, the love
on the faces of strangers
which I look at again and again
or a drawing of a little trip
with the three of us on a bicycle

We save it all
somewhere inside us, in the world
which we built ourselves and
where we feel more at home
than wherever
For Lotte W

Collection "Mastress"
678 · Jul 2022
[ You put on some thin ]
Zywa Jul 2022
You put on some thin

farewell words, with a vague smile --


you left shivering.
"Zoals je binnenkwam en dag zei" ("The way you came and and said hi", 1969, Herman de Coninck)

Collection "Loves Tricks Gains Pains in the 60s and 70s"
677 · Mar 2024
[ Every day we are ]
Zywa Mar 2024
Every day we are

celebrating without frills --


just being grateful.
Story "Het verhaal van Oosterhuis" ("Easthouse's story", 1946, Belcampo)

Collection "SoulSenseSun"
676 · Jul 2022
[ High in the mountains ]
Zywa Jul 2022
High in the mountains

there is plenty of heaven --


to make you happy.
"Tutto il cielo che serve" ("All the heaven you need", 2022, Franco Faggiani)

Collection "Thinkles Lusionless"
676 · Jun 2023
[ Visitors give me ]
Zywa Jun 2023
Visitors give me,

as a sick person, knowledge --


of human nature.
Novel "de vrije vogel en zijn kooien - De geschiedenis van een domicilie" ("the free bird and its cages - The history of a donicile", 1957, Simon Vestdijk), chapter 3-3

Collection "Inmost"
675 · Sep 2022
[ Writing from the heart ]
Zywa Sep 2022
Writing from the heart

is tricky, spontaneous --


words can be faulty.
Collection "The light of words"
674 · Mar 2022
Savour me
Zywa Mar 2022
Plenty of nice sweet men
but not with me, too little
is enjoyed

my body, I want to
surrender
to tough desire

romp with it, smell him
when I wake up
in the warmth of two

fitting bodies
in my bed, in my bed
in my longing

for stubble and hands
pushes in my skin
power in my flesh

glowing caresses
from a man who feels
who I am
For Maria Godschalk #159

Collection "Eyes lips chest and belly"
674 · Jun 2022
[ Looking at the tree ]
Zywa Jun 2022
Looking at the tree:

can I climb that high, up there --


where the kite is stuck?
Collection "From Sacred Scriptures [1]"
673 · Sep 2022
Let's go on vacation
Zywa Sep 2022
On vacation it is different
Then you are the man
I saw in you

then we do everything together
then we look together
viewed as together -

the outside of it
our two bodies
which are curiously scanned

through our clothes
We see it happen
and we see ourselves

as desirable persons
with ****** skin and lips
that laugh and whisper sweetly

I imagine it while
I wait for the kettle
Let's go on vacation
Collection "More"
670 · Apr 2023
[ It makes me lonely ]
Zywa Apr 2023
It makes me lonely

that no one sees how serious --


things are for me now.
Novel "Ik ben er niet" ("I'm not there", 2020, Lize Spit), page 249

Collection "Shelter"
670 · Nov 2023
[ Sand lays a ribbon ]
Zywa Nov 2023
Sand lays a ribbon

of rolling shapes covering --


the edge of the land.
Dunes - Poems "In de Grote Storm van" en "Zand is een vorm" ("In the Great Storm of" and "Sand is a shape", 2017, Wendela de Vos)

Collection "Truder"
669 · Apr 2022
[ This caterwauling ]
Zywa Apr 2022
This caterwauling

night after night, good heavens --


it is spring again!
"Sans Pause" ("Without a Pause", 45 minute version, 2020, Jan van de Putte), performed by Joseph Puglia (violin) on April 3rd, 2022 in the Organpark

Collection "org anp ark" #198
669 · Jan 2024
[ You more or less know ]
Zywa Jan 2024
You more or less know

what kind of day it will be --


Now you colour it.
Collection "New Ago"
668 · Jul 2019
Selfie in Venice
Zywa Jul 2019
A saint made of stone
has broken his neck
embraced by a boy

His head is in the middle
of the parvis, between the ribbons
red-white like the ambulance

for the wanton tourist
who wanted to present himself
with a unique background

without a notion of art
or an eye for the craftsmanship
of Bernardo Falconi

let alone some sense
of the religious meaning
of Sebastian's martyrdom

but attracted
by the divine beauty
of his naked body
“Grand Hotel Europa” (2018, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, § 19-5)

Collection “Blown sand”
667 · Jun 2023
Free will
Zywa Jun 2023
Freedom is doing
something for one's own
reasons, taken from nothing
and no one

A child is free
in its game, everyone
can be it and learn it
in friendship

Grown-up free
every new day
own agendas only
to live and let live

To do what you do and
to say what you say
for your own reasons
and not wanting it any other way
Collection "Lilith's Powers" #84
667 · Aug 2024
[ If your ambition ]
Zywa Aug 2024
If your ambition

listens to wise words, then you --


only hear yourself.
Play "The Three Arrows" (1972, Iris Murdoch), Act Two, scene Two

Collection "Unspoken"
664 · Apr 2019
Hamsa
Zywa Apr 2019
Eyes pass me with a greeting
eyes hang still in the streets
and shopping lanes, eyes fly

around the earth
eyes are watching
around important bodies

alert eyes
that protect, willing
to restrict others

I defend myself
and ward them off
with the hand on my heart

an eye for an eye
beware, I look back
even when I'm not looking
Collection “Mosaic virus”

Hamsa = five, the amulet “hand of Fatima”, originally “hand of Inanna” (Sumer, 5000 BC), then “hand of Ishtar” (Akkad, 2300 BC); Jews used the hand against the evil eye
664 · May 2024
[ I wake up. But hey ]
Zywa May 2024
I wake up. But hey!

How many hours did I sleep? --


Where am I? And when?
Novel "Quichotte" (2019, Salman Rushdie), part 2, chapter 9

Collection "Low gear"
663 · Oct 2023
[ Father is the black ]
Zywa Oct 2023
Father is the black

next to the red smouldering --


of the cigar tip.
Novel "De redding van Fré Bolderhey" ("The rescue of Fré Bolderhey", 1946, Simon Vestdijk), published in 1948, chapter 1

Collection "Inmost [2]"
663 · Jan 2022
[ The businesses closed ]
Zywa Jan 2022
The businesses closed,

quiet in the streets, and yet --


crowded in the parks.
Lockdown because of Covid-19

Collection "Summer birds"
662 · Aug 2023
[ I remember one ]
Zywa Aug 2023
I remember one

evening, and so many more --


of those there have been...
"Het tankstation op de route" - 1 ("The filling station on the route" - 1, 2013, Jan Baeke)

Collection "Stall"
Zywa Sep 2023
A girl passed by, the sound I heard
was fast and flashy like a bird's
A shining flower in her hair
a new song dancing in the air

Perhaps her very heart could twine
on me and then unite with mine
And coming in my depths of night
her glance would put me in the light!

But too outdated is my head...
Farewell, sweet ray that shines on me
your perfume, youth, the harmony...
This happiness had to pass. It fled!
"Une allée au Luxembourg" ("An avenue in Luxembourg Park", 1832, Gérard de Nerval, collection "Odelettes", 1834/1853)

Collection "Reaching out"
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