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Zywa May 2023
Man is a wild animal
in a herd, a group
that organizes
to be tamed

but it's not easy
to get the systems right
There are unexpected effects
or oppressive requirements

No one is responsible
Deposing leaders, killing
dictators makes no difference
The people tolerate the successor

Help is needed
From the outside, but
the borders are deadly
to humanity

So I must appreciate little
things, a glance
the clouds, fresh bread once
and dream what is forbidden
The main forms of totalitarian power:
    • capitalist kleptocracy of shareholders
    • oligarchic kleptocracy of a dictatorship
    • "family" kleptocracy of the mafia

Novel and screenplay "Metropolis" (1924, Thea von Harbou; film 1927, Fritz Lang)

Film "Modern Times" (1936, Charlie Chaplin)

Collection "Mastress"
Zywa May 2023
Crippled, skinny gull
puddles in the potholes
of empty streets

holes in the walls
the school closed, no one
who could leave stayed

after the riots
no one who was released
from the cells

Losses have been taken
suitcases packed
the water shut off

Old town, dead harbour
where I was at home and would
have liked to come back

clean your white steps
turn on your lights, please
turn on, turn on again
Song "Baltimore" (1977, Randy Newman, album "Little Criminals", 1978 sung by Nina Simone)

Collection "Between where"
Zywa Dec 2023
Barefoot, my mother

squats next to me in the grass --


very intimate.
Novel "Perfecte stilte" ("Perfect silence", 2011, Thomas Verbogt), chapter Summertime

Collection "The sweet curve"
Zywa Mar 2020
Battles and heroes

of the past are homages –


to ******, shameless.
“Het relaas van Solle” (“Solle's story”, 2015, Andreas Oosthoek)

Collection "May the Might"
Zywa Dec 2022
Your cloths are already dry
but I just let them flap
so at least something is happening
in this deserted place

You just sit there watching
taking a dip every now and then
Afterwards you carefully dab
the short hairs on your skull

I liked you better in the bar
although you were bragging
about your house and the beach
all to yourself

You showed your brown chest
I wanted to lie on it
and work on my tan a little
so nice by the sea

No, you are not social
the day is still long
and there is nothing here
to cook a good meal
"Sea Watchers" (1952, Edward Hopper)

Collection "NightWatch"
Zywa Jun 2019
I am sitting on the full power
of 210 horses, running
across Rooster beach
I exist, I live
ouring fast

my soul devours the surf
and the dune, the landscape
of my freedom, my dream
and reality fall together
on the border of the sea and friends

where I embrace my Norton
strong, autonomous, and free
I create image by image
life from my desires
I create love in myself
For Maria Godschalk #52

B EAU FORT is the name of the sculpture park on the Belgian coast

Collection “The migration”
Zywa Sep 2020
All people look at me
but no one sees me
Their looks stop at their fantasy

That's how it is to be almost a goddess
inhuman, an image, an avatar
around my body

concealing that I exist
and preventing me from dying
although everyone wants to **** me

for what It has done
in its creative drive
from which I was born

As if I can do something about
the way men and women see me
and what follies they commit

for the phantom with my name
which is immortal and naked
looking fixedly at them

so that their weapons fall
and they reconcile
with their dreams
“Hele-na” = “Mistress of Sunlight”
The most beautiful woman in the world, daughter of Zeus, wife of “Menelaus” (“Vigor of the people”), Paris en “Deiphobus” (“God-fearer”)

Collection “Imprints Masks"
Zywa Sep 2020
I have no worries
no other than ***
and the question of what love is
How do I keep his attention?

I'm trying my best
to converse intelligently
and wittily, but
I don't lose the feeling

that our marriage is a play
In bed, he stares away from me
while caressing and making love
He doesn't see my loneliness

but makes the most of it
he keeps me safe in his arms
before he gets active, and then
puts me to sleep on his chest

on his heart, which beats so
quietly and intangibly for me
when it suits him
He doesn't see my beauty
Collection “Imprints Masks"
Zywa Jan 2023
Beauty: a flower,

two people in love, or three --


high bar releases.
August 7th, 2012, Epke Zonderland - Olympic champion in the high bar

Collection "The Yellow House Museum"
Zywa Dec 2019
Beauty: an angel

of terror who despises –


to sweep us away.
"Die erste Elegie" ("The first elegy", 1912, Rainer Maria Rilke)

Collection "May the Might"
Zywa Apr 2023
Be careful, my love

is heavy, you will get tired --


and then you'll leave me.
"Not her" (2021, Siera Mayhew on AllPoetry.com)
For Siera Mayhew
Collection "Bruises"
Zywa May 2022
Be careful, my love

is heavy, you will get tired --


and then you'll leave me.
"Not her" (2020, Siera Mayhew on AllPoetry.com)
For Siera Mayhew
Collection "Loves Tricks Gains Pains in the 20s and 30s"
Zywa Feb 5
Be careful with men,

because they want just one thing:


your full attention.
Autobiographical account "Het Perpetuum Mobile van de Liefde" ("The perpetual motion machine of love", 1988, Renate Dorrestein), chapter 1 Zet eens een kroon op uw liehiefde (Crown your lo-ove)

Collection "Old sore"
Zywa Jan 2021
Be careful with Plans:

if you keep altering them –


you'll go in circles.
“De tranquillitate animi” (“On the tranquility of the mind”, 55 AD, Lucius Annaeus Seneca)

Collection "Willegos"
Zywa Nov 2020
Broken contact, what can you
say about it, do you have to
talk about missing it?

Having lost someone
who is still there, but never with you
not as it could have been

Having our own lives, you
because you decided so
and I because it is that way

If it wasn't so
we would feel
what we don't feel now

mutuality, togetherness
a sideshow though, yes
we let life flow

It can go around obstacles
it does not need any comment
and no afterword
Collection “Metamorphic body"
Zywa Aug 2024
Because HelloPoetry requires a CSRF cookie I leave

Best wishes to all my readers
Zywa Sep 2022
Be cross, be angry,

but please, don't do anything --


for once and for all.
"Folle leaver" ("Much rather", 2020, Nyk de Vries)

Collection "After the festivities"
Zywa Jun 2023
Boys look past
my shyness
I don't understand

So beautiful I see my feelings
in my face, my forms
in the mirror

Why doesn't anyone
want to enjoy me?
The beauty of a boy

discovered inside and out
by my skin
my curious body

In other people's houses
I capture the beds
in my dreams

None of them invite me
Can they see in me
how critical I am?
Collection "Life line"
Zywa May 20
Beep: she answers me

with an emoticon, as --


if she isn't silent.
Short stories "Gij nu" ("You now", 2016, Griet Op de Beeck), story 'een donkere rookpluim walmt ernstig de lucht in een vreemde geur verspreidt zich een goudvink maakt zich tsjilpend uit de voeten alsof hij groot onheil wil ontvluchten nu het nog kan' ('a dark plume of smoke billows seriously into the air a strange smell spreads a goldfinch takes off chirping as if it wants to escape great disaster while it still can'), chapter Four

Collection "Actively Passive"
Zywa Mar 2019
In me is the silence
that is not there
in the middle of 50,000
Irish bees

that are a black cloak
over my pale skin
my body is their heart
it's beating faster

from their poison, I feel
connected, one
with life, one
with spring, the

loud buzzing
of love here on earth
upon me
within me
Performance “Springtime” by Jeroen Eisinga in 2010-2011

Collection “Lilith's Powers” # 61
Zywa Jul 2024
Before I can take

off my hat, I have to wait --


for a good moment.
Play "Happy Days" (1961, Samuel Beckett), played by Antoinette Jelgersma on April 18th, 2023, in Frascati (director Erik Whien)

Collection "Stall"
Zywa Apr 2023
Since that day I

old striped out tiger
in a young body

stand in another light
that undresses me, inexorably

untying the laces of my certainties
unbuttoning my habits and dreams

kissing open my eyes
to the beauty

of the abyss
and with a soft hand

taking off my immortality
The abyss isn't an abyss

if I fly and you
accept my hand: look at me

I'm looking at you
standing in another light

since that day when I was so happy
to be still alive - I am

after deep sighs, ready
to jump
For Maria Godschalk

Collection "On living on [1]"
Zywa Jun 2021
Before the sunrise:

the gloaming greenish notlight –


of the dark blue sky.
“O verde do céu azul antes do sol ir a nascer” (“The green of the blue sky before the sun is being born”, 1919, Alberto Caeiro [Fernando Pessoa] )

Collection "Appearances"
Zywa Nov 2022
Before they can speak

angels always have to wait --


for a listener.
"The Satanic Verses" (1988, Salman Rushdie)

Collection "Low gear"
Zywa Dec 2023
Be generous, give

a like for a like, force it --


through the bad gateway.
S-zaynab-kamoonpury (Nigeria - Swaziland - Tanzania) publishes poems on HelloPoetry, in December 2022 "NOT A POEM THIS ONE": "If I read your poem and give it a thumb/heart then plz also read mine poem below and comment and click thumb too if you wish"

HTTP status code "502 Bad Gateway" (broken connection between two discrete networks)
Zywa Jan 2022
Beginnings are small,

the big thing will come later --


I believed, I hoped.
"Bruno's Dream" (1969, Iris Murdoch)

Collection "Unspoken"
Zywa Mar 2024
Behind her: a man,

his head perched on her shoulder --


like a frightful hawk.
Novel "Two Years Eight Months & Twenty-Eight Nights" (which is 1001 nights, 2015, Salman Rushdie), chapter 2 "Mr Geronimo"

Collection "Low gear"
Zywa Apr 10
Behind man's success

there is a woman watching --


it in amazement!
Novel "Zonder genade" (2001, "Without mercy", 2004, Renate Dorrestein), part 1, 'In De Put' ('In The Dumps'), chapter 'Wat Jem altijd zei' ('What Jem always said')

Collection "Old sore"
Zywa Oct 2022
Behind me: rulers

with a look at the future --


instead of a face.
"Nattbokensida" ("Nightbook-page", 1996, Tomas Tranströmer)

Collection "May the Might"
Zywa Feb 2024
Behind the curtain

of his music he dances:


the master flautist.
From Orpheus's lyre to the flutes of the *****

Composition for ***** (or harpsichord), SwWV 319, on the theme of "Ballo del granduca" ("The Grand Duke's Ball", 1590, Jan P. Sweelinck), performed on January 27th, 2024 by recorder ensemble The Royal Wind Music in the Organpark (arrangement Hester Groenleer)

Collection "org anp ark" #347
Zywa Jan 2021
The door is never locked
The key is just in it
ready to use
and never lost

but if you are busy
with problems on your mind
you will go look for it

and not get the idea
that you can just move on
by pressing the latch

Meditation does not help either
with the worries
you forget what is there
behind the door

and you stay where you are
calm and resigned
you put life into perspective

and you fantasize
how different it could be
behind the door

of your mind
Collection “Lilith's Powers" #18
Zywa Aug 2019
Behind the heater

crickets chirp at their loudest –


to put me to sleep.
"Otcy i deti" ("Fathers and children" / "Fathers and sons", 1862, Ivan Turgenev)

Collection "SoulSenseSun"
Zywa Apr 23
Behind the rocks there

is something mysterious --


You'd better not look.
Composition "Erdia Da" ("Offering to Mother Earth"), #8 from the album "Pèkisyon Funebri" ("Funeral service", 2016, MMMD [Mohammad] = Ilios and Nikos Veliotis), performed in the Organpark on April 12th, 2025 by Ilios Veliotis (oscillators), Nikos Veliotis (electronic cello), and Alex Mastichiadis ('ALEM', *****)

Collection "org anp ARK" #108
Zywa Feb 28
Behind the walls there's

a party, and the river --


still remains frozen.
Book "Het geheim van de schrijver" ("The writer's secret", 2000, Renate Dorrestein), part 'Faith', chapter 'About Doing your own thing'

Collection "Old sore"
Zywa Apr 2024
Being a hero,

still thoroughly despised --


for some bad manners.
Novel "Midnight's Children" (1981, Salman Rushdie), chapter 3-5 "A wedding"

Collection "Low gear"
Zywa May 22
Being alone is

nice, my experiences --


resonate again.
Song "Aftertones" (1976, Janis Ian, album "Aftertones")

Collection "Being my own museum"
Zywa Jan 2021
Being an adult,

I just long for the longing –


to be an adult.
“Terug” (“Back”, 2004, Erik Solvanger)

Collection "After the festivities"
Zywa Apr 2024
Being bored deeply

is a vague experience --


of all that exists.
"Die Langeweile offenbare das Seiende im Ganzen" ("Boredom reveals entities in the whole"), in: "Was ist Metaphysik?" ("What is metaphysics?", 1929, Martin Heidegger)

Collection "Unseen"
Zywa Aug 2020
Being civilized,

that is, friendly and polite –


no little white lies.
Collection "Foghorn"
Zywa Oct 2021
Being impatient

is just a matter of time:


having too much time.
"De virtuoos" ("The virtuoso", 1993, Margriet de Moor) --- Collection "Stream"
Zywa Nov 2023
Being in love, blind,

but don't be blind later on --


It would be the end.
Novel "Munya" (name: "Wish/Desire/ What is longed for permanently even though it is very difficult to get", 2008, Abdelkader Benali), chapter Amsterdam

Collection "Loves Tricks Gains Pains in the 0s"
Zywa Nov 2024
Being intimate

with people means having to --


share in their secrets.
Novel "Verborgen gebreken" ("Crying shame", 1996, Renate Dorrestein), part 4, chapter 1

Collection "Old sore"
Zywa Jun 2022
Being in your arms,

I haven't any doubt, I feel --


that I belong there.
"The winner takes it all" (1980, ABBA, album "Super Trouper")

Collection "Loves Tricks Gains Pains in the 80s and 90s"
Zywa Jun 2021
Being just the way

I am, together with you –


in our messy love.
“Een tafel vol vlinders” (“A table full of butterflies”, 2009, Tim Krabbé)

Collection "Loves Tricks Gains Pains in the 0s and 10s"
Zywa Aug 2022
Being objective

is easy, less scary as --


being subjective.
"Hoog en laag springen - Faxen aan Ger #4" ("Like it or not - Faxing Ger #4", December 25th, 1999, published 2021, Nicolien Mizee)

Collection "Out of place"
Zywa Apr 2023
Being so concerned

with the oppressed everywhere --


just not with colleagues...
"Het Bureau - De dood van Maarten Koning" ("The Office - The Death of Maarten Koning", 2000, Han Voskuil), page 191, Maarten Koning and Eef Batteljee (1989)

Collection "Not too bad [1974-1989]"
Zywa Jun 2021
Being there, content,

nobody's burden, that's it –


Saints do live that way.
Dagboekroman “Allesverpletterende –  Faxen aan Ger” (Diary-novel “All-crushing – Faxes to Ger”, 2019, Nicolien Mizee)

Collection "Out of place"
Zywa May 2020
Being there, that's it,

he smiles at me, gardens live –


and are never done.
Peter Sellers in “Being there” (1979)
For Maria Godschalk #76

Collection "Being"
Zywa Jun 2019
Being together

for a lifetime: call it love –


if it has been love.
After the book title "Liefde, als dat het is" ("Love, if that is it", 2019, Marijke Schermer)

Collection "Loves Tricks Gains Pains in the 0s and 10s"
Zywa Jul 2021
Being unhappy

seeks company, it thrives on --


many witnesses.
"Het diner" ("The Dinner", 2009, Herman Koch)

Collection "Actively Passive"
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