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May 2023 · 839
[ In the gusts of wind ]
Zywa May 2023
In the gusts of wind,

the waves foam yellowish green --


and.. a boat dances.
Collection "Mastress"
May 2023 · 496
Evill Will
Zywa May 2023
Forgive me
I don't want to explain away
the fact that I needed time

to put the consequences
of one or the other
together

The appearances may be against me
but I didn't hold aloof
really, I never wait and see

I don't look away
I just look thoroughly
for a well-considered decision

because so much is happening
and often there is no clear line
in all the details

And I don't want to do anything wrong
That is the seed
of my passivity

My aversion to misdeeds
Evill Will: Passivity (out of aversion to misdeeds)

About misdeeds: poem "Evill Intent" (see May 17th)
May 2023 · 1.1k
[ Eavesdropping always ]
Zywa May 2023
Eavesdropping always

changes something, except when --


it's done secretly.
"Trois couleurs: Rouge" - Fraternité ("Three Colours: Red" - Fraternity, 1993, Krzysztof Kieślowski)

Collection "Mastress"
May 2023 · 638
Big Bad Wolf
Zywa May 2023
I dare to get into bed with you
Your big mouth is too small
for the world, your heart too big

for me, here I am
Well, tell, then I'll dream
with you, about you

in a purple cloak
the skin of innocence and power
Very discreetly, very discreetly

you take revenge
on anyone who does not get into action
and just lets everything happen

You issue wise orders
that camouflage your agenda
Much trouble for nothing

for though you loathe them
they are not another species
they are like you

only not angry enough
to be able to choose
what is important

That is the seed
the seed of your anger
Everyone's passivity
Big Bad Wolf: Anger (out of aversion to other people's passivity)

About passivity: poem "Evill Will" (see May 25th)

Collection "Mastress"
May 2023 · 502
[ Here too, policemen ]
Zywa May 2023
Here too, policemen

coming to deport me to --


a death of torture.
After a rejected asylum application

Film "Die middag" ("That afternoon", 2023, Nafiss Nia)

Collection "Between where"
May 2023 · 1.7k
Evil Child
Zywa May 2023
Hand over my mouth, I laugh
at the evil child
you are, who wants everything
as it should be

a better world
justice, equality
and brotherhood, now!

No longer an ideal
that makes fellow human beings suffer
in order not to lack anything themselves

So immature, not you
your complaint, your desire
for more

more solidarity
more harmony
more self-criticism

I know, the seed
of your gluttony
which wants all that
is your sweet anger
Evil Child: Gluttony (for justice, equality and brotherhood, solidarity, harmony and self-criticism, out of anger at the lack of them in society)

About anger: poem "Big Bad Wolf" (see May 24th)

Collection "Mastress"
May 2023 · 521
[ The riches we have ]
Zywa May 2023
The riches we have

are limited, we want more --


attention, on call.
Collection "Mastress"
May 2023 · 1.2k
Evil World
Zywa May 2023
The night is safe. Come
Whatever goes wrong
you did what you could do

Come. You want too much
love and appreciation
from others for each other

and fewer regulations
fewer regulators
who interfere

and, like puppets
decide your fate
Mistakes are forbidden

They're in the system
and that's being worked on
Come. Over is the day

in which the seed lies
the seed of your fear
Your gluttonous love
Evil World: Fear (from a gluttonous need for love, comfort and security you fear, thinking you cannot function in the social system)

About gluttony: poem "Evil Child" (see May 23rd)

Collection "Mastress"
May 2023 · 250
[ We have coats of arms ]
Zywa May 2023
We have coats of arms

to protect us, our courage --


against doom-thinking.
Collection "Mastress"
May 2023 · 498
Evil Boss
Zywa May 2023
We live a sober life, enough
is enough for me, and reserves
are necessary according to you

Everything is insured, luckily
no loans, we are working hard
because otherwise one has nothing

The children have their own lives
they won't take care of us
and are already asking for part

of their portion of inheritance, but it's stuck
in stone, in vaults, and in your head
that also wants to cover the coverage

People should grow up
and take care of themselves
reap their own harvest

though we could share more
relying on mutual aid
not just on our own character

in which lies the seed
the seed of greed
Our fear
Evil Boss: Greed (for fear that others will not help you)

About fear: poem "Evil World" (see May 22nd)

Collection "Mastress"
May 2023 · 791
[ The gum bubble bursts ]
Zywa May 2023
The gum bubble bursts,

people scream about profit


motives: blue ******!
"Trois couleurs: Rouge" - Fraternité ("Three Colours: Red" - Fraternity, 1993, Krzysztof Kieślowski), Valentine

Collection "Mastress"
May 2023 · 268
Evil Fairy
Zywa May 2023
Always just joy and happiness
would be boring, but what can I
know about something that doesn't occur?

It would also be unfair, indeed
unbearable, if fairy tales
could be real

I don't begrudge my friends anything
as long as we go well together
and they don't flaunt

their children
being in the clover
or other prosperity

I avoid neighbours and colleagues
who like to brag about
additions and gadgets

I can miss those things
but Gladstone Gander's certainty
that there will always be enough

the blessing of good fortune
I would like to have that
And therein lies the seed

the seed of my envy
my greed, so that I can show
that I am blessed
Evil Fairy: Envy (out of the need to have a blessed life yourself)

About greed: poem "Evil Boss" (see May 21st)

Collection "Mastress"
Zywa May 2023
Gold chips on the street

can't be real, such a party --


would be pathetic.
May 2023 · 297
Evil Tongue
Zywa May 2023
There must be misery hidden
behind glitter and gold
wouldn't it?

We talk about it, right away
if there's anything suspicious
A child staying at home

grandma on a visit for a week
a new nanny
or a long business trip

Call it gossip
It is the cement
of our neighbourhood

And we know very well
that it is possible
it is not true

And this is the seed
the seed of our slander
Our envy
Evil Tongue: Slander (gossiping about neighbours and acquaintances, out of envy of their lives)

About envy: poem "Evil Fairy" (see May 20th)

Collection "Mastress"
May 2023 · 286
[ The world your parents ]
Zywa May 2023
The world your parents

keep impressing on you is --


fitting less and less.
Diary novel "Een licht bewoond eiland - Faxen aan Ger #5" ("A lightly inhabited island - Faxing to Ger #5", 2022, Nicolien Mizee), April 21st, 2000

Collection "Out of place"
May 2023 · 152
Evil Eye
Zywa May 2023
I'm not vain, I'm noble
Beyond reproach
I know the world, the people

with their little souls
their little minds
and little worries

I understand them, I see
the guilt and the shame
with which they punish themselves

for their lies
to keep the corpses
hidden in their wardrobe

I can guess them though
and I pass them on in a whisper
like a gear, a compelling eye

That's just how it works
Thanks to these seeds
I am exemplary

The seeds of my high-
handed, high-minded ideas
So practical, my slander
Evil Eye: Pride (after slandering people you consider inferior, look down on them with a compelling eye)

About slander: poem "Evil Tongue" (see May 19th)

Collection "Mastress"
May 2023 · 167
[ The tall man is dressed ]
Zywa May 2023
The tall man is dressed

in nothing, nothing but ties --


So superior!
Gires Kanda in a suit of ties, Kinshasa 2022 (photo Kris Pannecoucke)

Collection "Mastress"
May 2023 · 715
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"
May 2023 · 351
[ Just sully your hands ]
Zywa May 2023
Just sully your hands

and cover them, draw the veil --


of your black money.
Communist equality and true equality

"Trzy kolory: Bialy" - Równość ("Three Colours: White" [Equality], 1993, Krzysztof Kieślowski), Karol

Collection "Mastress"
May 2023 · 296
Songs without words
Zywa May 2023
Where are the poets
who devote themselves to music
to the songs that are too good
for the lyrics to the melody
so that nothing impairs
the sound of the feelings?

Songs without empty wishes
Songs without tall talk
And no commonplaces in rhyme

Only tenderness and joy
to my anger and anxiety
my melancholy and desire
my sadness, the love
and the wonder
at everything

Otherwise a title is enough
even difficult enough
for a song without words
Collection "The light of words"
May 2023 · 248
[ Poems can be vague ]
Zywa May 2023
Poems can be vague,

naming the unnamable --


unsilencing it.
Collection "The light of words"
May 2023 · 314
[ Grandpa is so strict ]
Zywa May 2023
Grandpa is so strict:

storms never thunder, because --


swearing isn't allowed.
Novel "sint sebastiaan" ("saint sebastian", 1939, Simon Vestdijk), III-1, page 148

Collection "Inmost"
May 2023 · 318
[ He is dangerous ]
Zywa May 2023
He is dangerous,

he paces in a system --


of fabrications.
Novel "sint sebastiaan" ("saint sebastian", 1939, Simon Vestdijk), III-4, pages 188-189

Collection "Inmost"
May 2023 · 1.0k
[ It's always like this ]
Zywa May 2023
It's always like this,

whenever I am happy --


I feel so lonely.
"Atlas shrugged"  (1957, Ayn Rand), part 1, chapter II

Collection "Willegos"
Zywa May 2023
That's how the world turns:

by people making something --


tangible that lasts.
"Atlas shrugged"  (1957, Ayn Rand), part 1, chapter IV

Collection "Willegos"
May 2023 · 555
Cross over
Zywa May 2023
It is empty on the Grand Square
The guide tells about the past
His words blow over

Birds above the roofs, white clouds
it takes a long time
until we go for a drink

In the café we cross over
in each other's language
to the streets where we live

and everything is the same
in a different way

We sing along to the songs
of our teenage years and toast
the world that is becoming ours

I stall for time, don't want to let go
of the guide, I'd like take him with me
and show him around my own city

let him see with my eyes
after seeing what he saw
not knowing what he was thinking
Collection "Migration"

Song "Nathalie" (1964, Gilbert Bécaud)
May 2023 · 189
[ Tourists are a plague ]
Zywa May 2023
Tourists are a plague,

going further and further --


they keep crossing lines.
Boundary crossing #4, Tourism

Collection "Migration"
May 2023 · 750
Baltimore
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"
May 2023 · 2.0k
[ Grandma's tapestries ]
Zywa May 2023
Grandma's tapestries,

which she wove as a girl, are --


decaying with her.
Collection "Between where"
May 2023 · 276
Pinball machine
Zywa May 2023
Everything flows, a coming
and going of opportunities
Flags blow everywhere
but I don't put poles
of certainty around me

My work and my relationships
are fluid, my fate
is not in my hands
not even in the lines
that fortune tellers read

Pleasure for myself
idealism for all
between the flippers and
the facades of the day and
the dreams of the night

The flippers of catastrophes
and consequences bang
on the bonces of power
the wheels of money and
the cannonballs of contempt
Heraclitus (Ephesus, 535-475)

"Panta rhei": "everything flows" like water

"Panta chorei": "everything changes place" through the "Pyros Tropai", the "turnings of (the eternal) fire"

Collection "Blown sand"
May 2023 · 333
[ At the reception ]
Zywa May 2023
At the reception

I am bouncing everyone --


like silly putty.
Collection "Blown sand"
May 2023 · 548
Falter
Zywa May 2023
Can people still have a discussion with me?
I can confront you
with my falter
That searching, the slow
which I can hardly bear myself?
And what do you think of me?

I'm getting smaller, too small
for everything and everyone
I know, more and more
is falling off my world
Dependent on friends
who need me

So nothing seems to have changed
but it's not like that
not the way it was
not what I was worth
I know too well what it is
to endure the day depressed

It may take a long time
that I'm not there for a while
Lost in unreachable thoughts
until I sound again like
I'm doing better
than I'm telling you
For Maria Godschalk

Collection "Slow circles"
May 2023 · 406
[ Am I elitist ]
Zywa May 2023
Am I elitist

if football is new to you --


and I explain it?
"Ik bel je wel als ik dood ben - Gesprekken met Armando", 2011-2018 ("I'll call you when I'm dead - Conversations with Armando", 2023, Cherry Duyns)

Collection "Stall"
May 2023 · 434
The reins of fate
Zywa May 2023
After today's four steps
I'm sitting in socks by the fireplace
My heavy boots are standing straight
and my back is still rattling

I am a henchman
I push the boundaries
of the ladies in love
and the rich gentlemen

I leave horse **** behind
and take the scent of freesias with me
The water in the bucket sloshes
like yearning love

I don't travel alone
We are armed
The papers are precious
Sealed letters

Beginning and maintaining
of relationships and major interests
Between the stops, the reins
of fate are in my hands
Four steps: four postal stops

Postilions (post-coachmen) wear heavy boots, to protect against getting jammed; these boots are named after the average distance between the posts (postal stops, relays): "bottes de sept lieues" ("seven-league boots")

Postillon d'amour = Post-coachman of love

Collection "Migration"
May 2023 · 363
[ The world we know is ]
Zywa May 2023
The world we know is

an evolutionary


boundary crossing.
Boundary crossing #1, Evolution

Collection "Migration"
May 2023 · 693
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]"
Zywa May 2023
Numbers: Eight times eight?

When I am in doubt I know --


that I am in love.
Children's book "Mijn avonturen door V.Swchwrm" ("My Adventures through V.Swchwrm", 1998, Toon Tellegen), page 76

Collection "Perhaps / Some day / Occasionally / Almost"
May 2023 · 318
[ The melancholy ]
Zywa May 2023
The melancholy

that it's true, the earth is small --


but our soul is not.
"Rimedio: la geografia" ("Solution: geography", 1920, Luigi Pirandello)

Collection "Stall"
May 2023 · 849
[ As a reader I ]
Zywa May 2023
As a reader I

would like to buy with each book --


reading time as well.
"Parerga und Paralipomena - Aphorismen zur Lebensweisheit" ("Appendices and Omissions - Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life",1851, Arthur Schopenhauer): "Buying books would be a fine thing, if you could buy the time to read them as well, but buying books is often confused with acquiring their content."

Collection "Stall"
May 2023 · 356
Pay for oppression
Zywa May 2023
Not living for later
but together, social
and respected

The king loathes it
He takes palaces and farmsteads
His taxation breaks

the compliance, cold
causes hunger
Threat of war

Propaganda points the way:
there is a saviour, a Father
of the Nation, he protects

the refugees from Antwerp
and the trade, he will
drive out tyranny

that beheads dukes and puts
believers at the stake, that makes
the country pay for the oppression
Tiende Penning (Tenth Penny, 10% sales tax), introduced by Spain in 1571 in the Netherlands

Grindelwald fluctuation: coldest period of the Little Ice Age in Western Europe (AD 1560-1600)

Collection "Mosaic virus"
May 2023 · 337
[ I kindled a fire ]
Zywa May 2023
I kindled a fire,

from it blows a wind, it blows --


the fire far away.
Collection "Mosaic virus"
May 2023 · 337
Sheeple
Zywa May 2023
I think of thinkers
who describe other sides
of the old stories
and the new talk

who observe what is there
as new and notice something
other than is accepted and
put that into reality

Precisely this responding
to what is already there
is originality
or the illusion of it

In an earlier time
I would have been such a thinker
but now it is of no use
in the easy lives

of well-to-do citizens, no use
to outcasts, no use
to outsiders, no use
to my heirs
Consumer society

"One-Dimensional Man. Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society" (1964, Herbert Marcuse)

Collections "The light of words" and "Life line"
May 2023 · 274
[ The short summary ]
Zywa May 2023
The short summary,

summarised just one more time:


Wait! What's it about?
Collection "The light of words"
May 2023 · 488
Open endings
Zywa May 2023
Not grown apart
still familiar, changed
/by each other's attention
Grown along in the other
in who we are

For everything
there can be a time
For slow days
/For closer to home
For constantly creating order
For new projects
and old friends

Occasionally
a message
without a hold
/on whether it fits
in the moment
and falls, falls
into place

Occasionally
the nearness
of our voices
/our most unique selves
talking freely
with open endings
for other times
For Maria Godschalk

Collection "The Yellow House Museum"
May 2023 · 929
[ The percussionists ]
Zywa May 2023
The percussionists

are counting, they are alert --


to the right moment.
Collection "The Yellow House Museum"
May 2023 · 330
Ice sheets
Zywa May 2023
Groups of people attract leaders
give them power, and that power
attracts people

In new times, power melts
Supporters drop out, so
the level drops again

Thus the masses push and ******
the waters of prosperity up and down
as if it were happening to them

Far away the sea moves with it
bringing drought or flood
and tormenting people until they unite

in a countervailing power, bringing their
well-being and downfall upon themselves
with all its consequences
Self-gravitation

Collection "Different times"
May 2023 · 270
[ The Great Leader shouts ]
Zywa May 2023
The Great Leader shouts:

We Are Great, The World Is Ours!


Who offers the most?
Collection "Different times"
May 2023 · 399
[ Having a stare-down ]
Zywa May 2023
Having a stare-down,

as if the other is wrong --


sitting on your seat.
Novel "Het smelt" ("It melts", 2016, Lize Spit), July 15th, 2002

Collection "Shelter"
May 2023 · 497
[ The sand wants to be ]
Zywa May 2023
The sand wants to be

here, or on the other side --


not in the middle.
The hourglass as a symbol for bipolarity

Novel "Ik ben er niet" ("I'm not there", 2020, Lize Spit), page 331

Collection "Shelter"
May 2023 · 878
[ Everything goes slow ]
Zywa May 2023
Everything goes slow,

his walking, his answering --


Always three dots first...
Novel "Ik ben er niet" ("I'm not there", 2020, Lize Spit), page 347-348

Collection "Shelter"
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