Always keep skating,

over thick ice and thin ice --


And avoid the holes.


Over dik en dunÜber dickes Eis
ijs alle dagen schaatsen --und dünnes Eis eislaufen --
Wakken vermijden.Waken vermeiden.

Poem H0076
Amsterdam, 2011-12-11

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Life: course (on the way) 
 

I learn every day,

from my fellow students, that --


I am different.


Ik leer elke dagTäglich lerne ich
van mijn medestudenten --von meinen Mitstudenten --
dat ik anders ben.dass ich anders bin.

Poem S0016
Amsterdam, 2011-12-19

Being the un-"important other" of your partner (INSEAD in Singapore)
Collection: I am 
Keyword: Identity: being different 
Dedicated to: Claudia A 
 

Here, please take my hand,

and feel the silky wrinkles --


which you may caress.


Hier, pak mijn hand maar,Hier, nimm meine Hand,
en voel de zachte rimpels --mit allen weichen Falten --
die jij kunt strelen.die du streicheln kannst.

Poem H0110
Julianadorp, 2011-12-25

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Contact: touch(ed) 
 

A lot of half-truths

fill the newspaper daily --


lifelike, and so true?


Halve waarhedenTja, Halbwahrheiten
vullen dagelijks het nieuws --füllen täglich die Zeitung --
levensecht, toch waar?lebensecht, so wahr?

Poem S0037
Amsterdam, 2012-01-28

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Truth 
 

After his stupid

statement, his laugh challenged me:


Just contemplate this!


Zijn lach na iets domsNach seiner Dummheit
dat hij zei, daagde me uit:lockt sein Lachen mich heraus:
Denk hier over na!Überdenke das!

Poem H0467
Amsterdam, 2013-06-17

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Communication 
 

The window steams up,

and I read: I'm also there --


when you can't see it.


De ruiten beslaan,Das Fenster beschlägt,
en er staat: ik ben er ook --ich lese: ich bin da, auch --
als je het niet ziet.wenn du es nicht siehst.

Poem H0608
Amsterdam, 2013-10-06

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Perception: 
 

The cows look at me

as if they ask me: are you --


living without grass?


De koeien kijkenDie Kühe sehen
me aan alsof ze vragen:mich an als fragen sie mich:
leef jij zonder gras?lebst du ohne Gras?

Poem S0104
Amsterdam, 2013-10-08

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Animals: cow / bull / bison / ox 
 

Children ask questions,

and they learn a lot from that --


Just like adults do.


Kinderen vragen,Kinder fragen viel,
daar worden ze wijzer van --dadurch werden sie klüger --
Volwassenen ook.Auch Erwachsene.

Poem H0897
Amsterdam, 2014-04-05

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Knowledge: gain 
 

Zywa Bow waves

My world doesn't have to be bigger
than as far as my eyes reach
yet they see a new horizon
when I look around over there

     Give me your hand, wait
     a while with going and come
     with me, together
     we can be at home


I will always stand still
on street corners
looking where the sun is
where the clouds go

     Take off your jacket, your fear
     be happy here
     take a bath
     I'll give you a massage


Indefinite scents
blow over the beach
my feet push
bow waves in the sand

Poem 598
Amsterdam, 2016-03-22

Man and woman
Collection: I am 
Keyword: Curiosity: secret / world 
 

Zywa Good enough

Your mirror image isn't equally
beautiful on all sides
but good enough
and if someone takes an example
to you, it's about something else -
the way you are
the way you behave

an attitude, a virtue
a skill, an understanding
a balance of interests
as if it always goes that way
but you do know
better, you know
yourself

also
mirrored
differently
being
just
good
enough

also mirrored differently being just good enough

Poem 757
Amsterdam, 2016-08-20

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Self-knowledge 
 

The poets are proud

of their own publication:


more real than they are!


Trots zijn de dichtersDie Dichter sind stolz
op hun eigen uitgave:auf ihre Publikation:
echter dan zijzelf!echter als sie selbst!

Poem S0399
Amsterdam, 2016-10-01

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Writing 
 

In the arms of clouds

I'm climbing up to the light --


that recedes from me.


Omarmd door wolkenVon Wolken umarmt
klim ik omhoog naar het licht --klettere ich zu dem Licht --
dat wegzweeft van mij.das von mir wegschwebt.

Poem S0400
Amsterdam, 2016-10-01

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Idealism 
 

Dad thinks I'm fighting,

I do, I'm fighting the wind --


in his idle mind!


Pa denkt dat ik vecht,Paps denkt, ich kämpfe,
ja, ik vecht tegen de lucht --ja genau: gegen die Luft --
van zijn gedachten!seiner Gedanken!

Poem H1544
Vaison-la-Romaine, 2016-10-10

"El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha" ("The ingenious gentleman, sir Quijote of the Mancha", 1605, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra)
Collection: I am 
Keyword: Puberty 
 

Zywa q.

I live in a half-home
hours from the city
in a rubble village
from which the youth is leaving
and where I don't hear language
that speeds up my pulse

I recognize the coats
of my neighbours and I think
that they are decent people
strangers that I greet
and from whom I don't want
to know more than from myself

It's all clearly
a question about friendship
whether there are doors
which I open myself
and what choices
I turn over in my mind

Poem 829
Amsterdam, 2016-11-12

Quaestion >> q. >> ?
Collection: I am 
Keyword: Friendship: neighbours 
 

Zywa Icons

This town has stars
a Walk of Fame paved
by underlords and commissions
with a professional pomp

as shepherds of international honour
Who falls prey to them
definitely will no longer be oneself
he is extinguished and replaced

by the icon with his name
Gautama the awakened
Jesus the highest love
Socrates has self-knowledge

Leonardo and Albert are brilliant
and Judas stands for betrayal –

we passers-by echo it
and let the stars shine

to receive as much light
from them as possible, why
actually? Why do we betray
ourselves by not venturing

to love, knowing
enlightened and freed who we are?

Poem 890
Amsterdam, 2016-12-12

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Wisdom / Stupidity 
 

Zywa Rewrite the rules

Your house can be my house
our house, a nice house
I love you

if you don't want to be more
than I am and want to be more
than you are, not a boy

but a man who dares
to see me as Í see me
then you'll see more

of reality than you think
you see with your self-conceit
Look carefully, look better, I am

not a lesser man, I am
more than your expectations
How far do you dare?

Poem 1985
Amsterdam, 2018-12-13

"Rewrite the rules" is the appeal in an Always infomercial, calling up to rewrite the male rules of society
Collection: I am 
Keyword: Equality: self-respect 
 

Zywa Do not count

A sphinx in the desert grabs my feet

     What is small, soft and weak
     but stronger than the hardest marble?

     Do not count on what you have learned
     do not count on what you are thinking now
     do not count on what you will know later

     but surrender to the answer
     or burn alive in the sun!


The standing heat and my resistance
against this exam dehydrate me

I lick the salt from my lips
fold my hands above my head
until they sting and get exhausted

my sweat evaporates
my skin is bursting
sand fills the slits

I dream of drops
that seal me
one by one, slowly

making their way deep
into my fibres, and the sphinx nods
She releases me

     Here's a roof
     here's a well
     take a rest and move on

Poem 2052
Amsterdam, 2019-01-25

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Letting go 
 

Zywa The asking animal

If only the little animal could
understand everything
no questions unanswered
when it dies

It does not live long enough
and flying is the time
of hundred wonderful times
of playing to die, the time

of asking again and again why
thus, this or that, and how
curiously cutting and pasting
knowledge, screaming

and throwing away angrily
lying down exhausted
and cry, but still
starting over once more

rearrange or discard
the half answers
and go looking
for new data

always ask another question
principally blind
full of confidence
that there will be an answer

Poem 2059
Amsterdam, 2019-01-26

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Playing: learn 
Keyword: Questions 
 

Zywa Gliding away

I think Grandpa knew what dying is
Would he have understood as a child
how it goes, what it means?
Unfortunately, he was unable to explain it to me

He slipped away, slowly quickly

In Rouen, I saw a painting
with yellow light: two boys
in a boat, a candle at their feet

cut lame and bandaged
Their story has become an image
of dying: the crossing

the mind loses its sharpness
volatilises in mists over the water
It is romance, there is no boatman
punting, but there is an other side

Poem 2183
Amsterdam, 2019-03-25

Painting "Les énervés de Jumièges" ("The de-nerved of Jumièges" / "The sons of Clovis")
Collection: I am 
Keyword: Death:  
Tribute to: Luminais, Evariste-Vital 
 

Zywa Blessing

The palm of a hand
is the sign of good intentions
     I am not armed
     that's my gift

so is everything
in everyone's hands
     live with me
     I will help you

My palm says
who I am, asking you
     who you want to be
     for yourself and me

before oblivion
erases who I didn't help
     to grow, and why
     I didn't bloom

My darling does things
that are a gift
     it's her name
     as a sign

Poem 2288
Amsterdam, 2019-06-20

Signum = sign, God's blessing
Doron = gift, palm

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Life: gift 
Dedicated to: Dory dK 
 

Zywa For us

In front of us, the jetty, which at the end
of the road from the bustle of the center
after the hills on the coast, protrudes into the sea

For us, no cemetery today, only the thought
of those we have buried and of the unknown
in the global grave of the sea

For us, the baker got up early, the tea has been picked
the house been built, where we will be guests for a week
under the clouds, the children of the sea

For us is life with its fruits, the rain we drink
and the gravity of everything, holding us together
outlined in the window frame around a holiday by the sea

Poem 2290
Amsterdam, 2019-06-21

All Soul's Day
Collection: I am 
Keyword: Gratitude 
 

Zywa Higher Me

I am or we are, that is the question
the drama of everyday life
Am I myself or do I join
a group, do I want
cover, but not too many
claims to my freedom?

That there are rules, but
enough options left
to evade them legally
to look the other way
and gain an advantage behind the scenes
even though I know (if I want)
that there is a higher Me

that does not want to harm itself
certainly not want to mutilate itself
with sticks, stones, scimitars
or very civilized in one
fell swoop with the push
of a button

Poem 2301
Amsterdam, 2019-06-25

Collection: I am 
Keyword: People: individuals 
 

Zywa Until here

In the dark down
of the tower only the cord
catches light, back and forth
while the bell is ringing

Immediately people flock
to the shouting secret
There is news, the latest news
and they comment on the rope

(decent people are unmasked
  their additional interests revealed
  and underground networks
  unraveled)

but they are particularly
curious about the hands
pulling the bell
there in the dark, down

in the tower, inside
the mind
that cannot be forced
to be silent

After that, the fresh breeze
from the louver holes soon blows
away, the clear sky becomes overcast
and people go

their separate ways again
after the solemn agreement
that it will never, ever
happen again

Poem 2304
Amsterdam, 2019-06-25

In Dutch, a whistleblower is called: Bell-ringer
"Non plus ultra" = until here and "no further"; here = the border of the world known to the Greeks, namely the Pillars of Hercules at Gibraltar and Monte Hacho

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Passivity: easiness (sloth) 
Keyword: Greed 
 

Zywa Torn off

The books are decorations
only covers, gold-leafed
light and empty, my legacy
in attic racks

I would laugh at it
if I didn't cough
of the dust (to dust)

There's a paper inserted
torn off the certificate
of a birth

A secret. I have been legitimized
Made real with a stamp
I live under a false name

It feels like dying
of the question what
name I would like and what

would it change? This official
document erases my name
I will always think:
It's not who I am

Poem 2306
Amsterdam, 2019-06-26

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Identity: change 
 

Mama, what is death?

That is the end of one's life.


And life, what is life?


Mama, wat is dood?Mama, was ist tot?
Dat je ophoudt te leven.Dass du aufhörst zu leben.
En wat is leven?Und was ist leben?

Poem H2627
Amsterdam, 2019-11-17

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Questions 
 

Zywa Fleaing myself

I look sideways at the flowers
I picked in the woods this morning
they stretch in the warmth
of my bedroom

outside, the rain rustles
over the traffic, the city
hidden behind the soft wall
of the curtains

the light from the clouds
shines broadly around
the candles on the plates
on the floor next to my bed

my skin is showered smooth
I brush the downy hair
this is me, to be loved
and coddled

I stroke my heart
it is not arousing
to whisper to myself
I love you

I stretch and pile pillows
under my buttocks, what shall I
fantasize, here I lie
as a queen

Poem 2527
Amsterdam, 2019-12-03

Fleaing is not: defleaing, but: removing skin flakes from the fur
Collection: I am 
Keyword: Love: for yourself 
Dedicated to: Maria Godschalk 
 

A women's circle,

long hair waving in the wind --


dresses flying up.


Vrouwen in een kring,Ein Kreis von Frauen
lange haren in de wind --mit langen Haaren im Wind --
vliegende rokken.fliegende Kleider.

Poem H2666
Zandvoort aan Zee, 2020-02-02

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Self-expression 
 

Poem 2672
Amsterdam, 2020-02-03

The clowns (Federico Fellini) (1970)
Film "I clowns"
Collection: I am 
Keyword: People: fellow man 
Tribute to: Fellini, Federico 
 

Where I cut, I bleed,

please look, look at me, I am --


warm, no delusion.


Waar ik snijd bloed ik,Ich schneide, blute,
kijk dan, kijk naar mij, ik ben --schau mal, schau mich an, ich bin --
warm, geen verzinsel.warm, keine Fiktion.

Poem S0993
Amsterdam, 2020-03-02

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Attention: attract 
 

This graffiti scratched

into my skin: living art --


my body, myself.


Graffiti, gekrastGraffiti, gekratzt
in mijn huid: levende kunst --in die Haut: lebendige --
mijn lichaam, ikzelf.Kunst, mein Körper, ich.

Poem S1121
Amsterdam, 2021-01-04

Tattoo
Collection: I am 
Keyword: Identity:  
 

Babies say "Mama”

and start talking more, yet less --


you get to know them.


Na "Papa” pratenNach “Papa” reden
baby's steeds meer, en minder --Babys mehr, und weniger --
ga je hen kennen.wird man sie kennen.

Poem S1141
Amsterdam, 2021-03-07

At the birth of Sybren
Collection: I am 
Keyword: People: individuals 
Dedicated to: Karin J J 
Dedicated to: Joris S 
 

A baby doesn't talk,

yet you do understand him --


better than adults.


Een baby praat niet,Ein Baby spricht nicht,
toch begrijp je hem beter --doch man versteht ihn besser --
dan volwassenen.als Erwachsene.

Poem S1142
Amsterdam, 2021-03-07

Collection: I am 
Keyword: People: mankind 
 

Zywa Groping for each other

What you experience, I experience
through your stories, it becomes also my
also my memory, my identity

Your desire, your delight
is also my emotion, my need
my reason of subsistence

The love that embraces you
also warms me, the love
you miss, also saddens me

With you, I follow the choices
that you make, regardless which
choices I would make myself

Your confusion, your searching
confuses me, makes me grope
where you are, on my side

We embrace life
the secrets of our bodies
We embrace, embrace each other

Poem 3935
Amsterdam, 2021-09-20

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Friendship: 
Dedicated to: Maria Godschalk 
 

Zywa Divided man

To take care of you, help
others, perform projects of my own
undisturbed, without being troubled

by anyone or anything, or
being
obliged to anything

Show what I'm worth
and then do something
very different

Sit at home together
cosily on the couch
reading about adventures

and suddenly set out
just like that, being free
and still belonging

I want it all

Poem 4097
Amsterdam, 2021-11-03

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Balance: psychic 
Tribute to: Verhaeghe, Paul 
 

In cities you may

get to know your real self as --


a species-member.


In de stad kun jeIn der Stadt kannst du
jezelf goed leren kennen --dich sehr gut kennenlernen --
als lid van de soort.als Mitglied der Art.

Poem H3126
Amsterdam, 2021-11-13

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Self-knowledge 
 

I write in relief,

the ballpoint ink is used up --


but I still have words.


Ik schrijf in reliëf,Ich schreib in Relief,
de inkt in de pen is op --ich hab keine Tinte mehr --
mijn woorden nog niet.Worte immer noch.

Poem H3130
Amsterdam, 2021-11-14

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Writing 
 

Zywa Photo of my covered flower

Can I leave something? Would I
like to hang in a museum, with name
and lifetime or anonymous

as Woman With Blossom Branches
better known as The Covered Flower -
a lasting proof of my existence
living on as an iconic person?

You thought I was beautiful, you had to
take a photo, for that moment
itself (I can't show myself like that)

Even if you look at me
without me being there
the question is who or what
I am for you then

Am I beautiful in another way
now, am I more fragrant
with almost flaccid ripeness?

Or do you not dare to take
a good look, afraid of me-
lancholy, pity and regrets
of the missed chances?

Poem 4726
Amsterdam, 2022-10-11

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Identity: body 
 

Zywa Empty face

Horizontally my visibility is
250 degrees, I guess, at the front
- in the palmated bowl
of my skull - an open visor
looking at the wide world and all

of myself, except
what is mostly me
my face
so that I only have a faint idea
who the people who see me see

Their reactions are familiar to me
I am who I am
but a stranger to myself
and less and less my inner
image, as time passes

Poem 4756
Amsterdam, 2022-10-24

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Identity: body 
 

I can see myself

dancing on fast and light feet --


all without stumbling.


Ik zie me dansenIch sehe mich schnell
op snelle, lichte voeten --und sehr leichtfüßig tanzen --
zonder gestruikel.ohne zu stolpern.

Poem H3532
Amsterdam, 2022-10-26

1/38 (Kevan and Bijan Chemirani) (2022)
Composition, performed on October 26th, 2022 in the Music Building on IJ, by Sokratis Sinopoulos [lyra], Jean-Guihen Queyras [cello], and Bijan Chemirani [zarb and daf]
Collection: I am 
Keyword: Fantasy: imagination 
Composer: Chemirani, Kevan 
Composer: Chemirani, Bijan 
 

Garlanded by hearts,

by stars and thumbs-up I am --


who I think I am.


Omkranst met hartjes,Umkränzt von Herzen
sterren en duimpjes ben ik --und Daumen bin ich der, der --
wie ik denk te zijn.ich glaube, ich bin.

Poem S1556
Amsterdam, 2022-10-31

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Identity: self-image 
 

It's not the older,

but the younger, the fewer --


namesakes people have.


Niet hoe ouder, maarJe älter, desto
hoe jonger, hoe minder naam-weniger Namensvetter?
genoten je hebt.Gar nicht! Je jünger!

Poem H4207
Amsterdam, 2023-10-11

Individualism: parents' need for unique names for their children
Collection: I am 
Keyword: People: individuals 
 

The great hairstylist

conjures up my character --


with pin, wire, and foam.


De kapper tovertDer Friseur zaubert
mijn karakter te voorschijn --meinen Charakter herbei --
met speld, draad en schuim.mit Klammer, Draht, Schaum.

Poem H4210
Amsterdam, 2023-10-11

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Self-expression (nature) 
Keyword: Self-expression 
 

A book with questions

about the world, search yourself --


what your answers are.


Een boek met vragenEin Buch mit Fragen
over de wereld, zoek zelf --zur Welt, finde selbst deine --
naar jouw antwoorden.eigne Antworten.

Poem H4415
Amsterdam, 2023-12-30

How do you live? (Genzaburo Yoshino) (1937)
Novel "Kimitachi wa d? ikiru ka" ("How do you live?" / "What is your way of life?")
Collection: I am 
Keyword: Reason: discrimination 
Tribute to: Yoshino, Genzaburo 
 

Car with a driver

waiting for me, it is just --


too big to be parked.


Auto met chauffeurAuto mit Fahrer,
die op me wacht, tja, te groot --der auf mich wartet, einfach --
om te parkeren.zu groß zum Parken.

Poem S2097
Amsterdam, 2024-01-14

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Power: wealth 
 

We send each other

nice images of ourselves:


"This isn't me", is it?


We sturen elkaarWir schicken wunder-
mooie beelden van onszelf:schöne Bilder von uns selbst:
"Dit ben ik", nietwaar?"Dies bin ich", oder?

Poem S2113
Amsterdam, 2024-02-05

The Treachery of Images (René Magritte) (1929)
Painting "La trahison des images" - "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" ("This Is Not a Pipe")
Collection: I am 
Keyword: Identity: image 
Tribute to: Magritte, Rene 
 

Zywa Who I am

I peek at my classmates
who I am, and I try it
out on them, because
they don't know me yet

Not as well as Mum
who already knows who I am
and comments on it
which often stops me

from being myself, from doing
as I please, Mum says
rather take example
by your brother or by us

I find it quite a hassle
to find out how
I am, I think I am
constantly changing

Poem 2283
Amsterdam, 2019-06-19

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Identity: change 
 

Zywa Emperor

Feelings squeeze
my stomach and belly
the soft parts

They collide and quarrel
with each other and outsiders
cry out the loudest

to the mind which is entrenched
in the skull, watching through the cracks
as an emperor

drawing frames around everything
there is, for he is the order
putting everything in a row

he determines the world
which is mine, full of people
a chaos without me

Poem 2060
Amsterdam, 2019-01-26

LATIN Ordo = queue
Collection: I am 
Keyword: Order: organise 
 

Zywa Dew

The morning dawns, I step out of bed
Because I want to feel it, I go through

being born in public, I undress myself
in the street and it feels funny

I caress my goose bumps, it's embarrassing
that I have to pee on the waterfront

We're standing still not to fall
Shoulder before shoulder all together

We're standing still for the picture
like athletes at the start, we stretch, forget

the small hard shelves, the extending toes
and the cold iron between butt and legs

We're standing still as if we hover –
an arch of bellies soft

stretched over the canal
Venuses for a moment

Poem 76
Train Amsterdam-Nijmegen, 2007-06-08

Leliegracht (Lily Canal), Amsterdam June 3rd, 2007 (Spencer Tunick)
Collection: I am 
Keyword: Body: naked 
Tribute to: Tunick, Spencer 
 

Zywa Fight after the fight

Amsterdam! Free
man of the world you want to be

your wild eyes threaten
my father hand, please, send
an angel, light, a woman
a favourable wind, sweet dreams
someone, something to help you
unbreakable mirrors if need be

Father, mother, earth, universe
make something happen, of course
who sees everything, does not know why
to intervene

freedom would be meaningless
if for adults only

understanding and obedient
everything with measure, giving up
what is beautiful and attractive
and smiling
at the discontented excuses
and lies of the past

You grow up wounded
I too have built, defended
and then demolished
castles and walls -

old men's proud
of the scars of my fight

Poem 622
Amsterdam, 2016-04-07

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Puberty 
Keyword: Amsterdam% 
 

Zywa The martial art of virtue

I may sit on the couch
complaining that it isn't right
however I do my best

to understand it
like so many people
who are not afraid

and yet do not dare
to rely on themselves
I may dream more

than that I pay attention and
put into practice what I know
not making decisions and

living an insignificant life
but I prefer to act as if
everything is important to me

Thoughts are not virtues
and virtues are no thoughts
or superpositional patterns

but magical moments
in visible reality:
my energy

Poem 2057
Amsterdam, 2019-01-26

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Ethics: 
 

Zywa Thought to be

What I do and how
I live and think and whereto
Well, who I am...

Still breathing air
from your mouth and thinking
to be rather us than me

Questions I had, you unexpectedly
asked, so I thought
to be more us than me

Your eyes asked me
without any shield or screen of pretence
to feel who we are, by the sea

you whispered I see myself in you
and I thought to be more us than me
whoever we might be

Poem 136
Train Doetinchem-Nijmegen-Amsterdam, 2009-08-10

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Identity: connection 
 

Zywa Reago ergo sum

I want to live, not sleep
bobbing on a bed
of laurels or walk laps
on a treadmill, always

take part in something new
even though you laugh at me -
After every experience I die
and I wake up

in a new experience
That is the story
of my life
completed

per experience -
respond as well as possible
in every situation
Without plot, without end

just like when I was child
You are mature
if you understand this:
Reago ergo sum

Poem 613
Amsterdam, 2016-04-01

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Illusions: story 
 

Zywa My vague self

In distorting mirrors and family photos
I explore the limits of who I am
In company, I let my body bob
my eyes expectantly hidden

behind a golden curtain of long hair
enticing like a star, with puckered lips
to feel what it is like
to be world famous

and then experience my vagueness
all the more, hidden behind big eyes
like a child in angel wings of sand
with golden keys in my hand

Poem 2276
Amsterdam, 2019-06-18

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Identity:  
 

Zywa Extras

Digging for a new tree
I find bones in my garden
that have lived
where I live now

in a house like mine
maybe the same
dressed with flesh
two eyes and a mouth

a stranger like the neighbour
with his wild hair, in a bathrobe
in front of the window
like so many people

staff and passers-by
people who are busy
and people who are bored
extras, all of them

they act and fill the world
of others without playing
in a play, including me
with the bones in my hand

Poem 2267
Amsterdam, 2019-06-15

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Time: temporality 
 

Zywa In love's shoes

On good days I am not alone
Then love walks along, a step
aside is easily done, as though
I walk in love's shoes

and feel and know
what love would do, love that
does understand the other

and loves everyone equally
in a neutral, unjustly neutral way

because love is so much greater than we are

So, on good days I walk
in different shoes, I look
with different eyes and I feel
with a different, greater heart

which has room for all kind of things
that people do without love -
as people are: humane

and that is not redundant
no tautology or pleonasm

but a paradox

Poem 2244
Amsterdam, 2019-05-18

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Paradox 
 

Zywa Softer and sweeter

I have carved thousands of photos
of my life in stone
without my name
let alone gilded
in chiseled capitals

Photos for strangers
who dont live'yet
I have counted and weighed them
their balance is nothing
flat

I ripened, I am softer
and sweeter now
not who I have been
not what remains hard
as if it still exists

With all my experiences
I swaddled myself
in the stone folds
to decay there
and be forgotten

Poem 2269
Amsterdam, 2019-06-16

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Time: temporality 
 

Zywa A dog started

It happened, he died
I saw him lie in state

leaving his house, many people
joined and whispered

It had not been sorted out yet
but his defense was so slight
it didn't even make the newspaper

The bearers said he was guilty
boys threw paint on his terrace
the bells were ringing, a dog started

barking as hard as he could

Poem 2273
Amsterdam, 2019-06-17

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Slander 
 

Zywa In the middle

Always build a tower
solid and in the middle
make a daily round

along the outposts, you learn
from that, also from the wind
and the farmers, sit down

with the children playing
and listen to what they repeat
from their parents and the neighbours

Occasionally beat the drums
but never dig holes
for the dead of tomorrow

plant flowers every season
around the squares and the cities
as a welcome to the enemy

in your suspicion, and pay attention
because the better you look
the more you see

Poem 2058
Amsterdam, 2019-01-26

Collection: I am 
Keyword: Foreigners: meet 
 

Zywa
     Collection:   I am
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