Zywa

Zywa Skull soup

On a swivel chair, I look around
the time capsule of my head
flies and devises stories

of memories and images
that pass, I travel
to my birth country

It does not exist, never
it has existed, it is a soup

of ingredients picked life-
long at my feet, cooked
in the pan of my skull

The fresh soup now
from my birth country
tastes different, really

I see it
at the plants and the varieties

Poem 1060
Amsterdam, 2017-02-22
Chair car (Edward Hopper) - 1965
Painting
Film "Shirley: visions of reality (2013, Gustav Deutsch)
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Home: bygone / homesickness
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward; Deutsch, Gustav

Zywa All inclusive

On assigned holidays
I step out of the order
of my work into the row
for useful relaxation

The grain comes up
the sun breeds the grains
and colours the winter out of our skin

Everything is included, extras
can be booked on site
and appropriately enjoyed
in one of the wings

Thus we fly laps
in our dreams for a week
enjoying our role

although there is always someone
who doesn't participate, hooking
on to the back with a book
that he could have read at home

without disturbing others
in their well-deserved vacation
of exclusive behaviour

Poem 4076
Amsterdam, 2021-10-31
People in the Sun (Edward Hopper) - 1963
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Holiday / Vacation
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Interplace

Only the radio is still here
the movers left
my house, an interplace now
a pause in the street

There, the inner garden
squirrels and tall trees
Standing at the window, warmth
on my face, in my clothes

The room is nicer now
swept, a sunny emptiness
With a windowsill of music
that I will take with me, in a little while

Poem 1201
Amsterdam, 2017-03-12
Sun in an empty room (Edward Hopper) - 1963
Painting
Film "Shirley: visions of reality (2013, Gustav Deutsch)
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Home: move
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward; Deutsch, Gustav

Zywa Meantime Now

He is gone, I wish he came back
Would he, perhaps, now happen to
have come here to this movie?

That I turn around and he is there
alone, like me, and now
we know how it works

we might make more of it

if he, if he
wants so and seizes this opportunity
before the gong goes, and

if I, if I
dare to look behind
now it is still a break

Poem 1199
Amsterdam, 2017-03-12
Intermission (Edward Hopper) - 1963
Painting
Film "Shirley: visions of reality (2013, Gustav Deutsch)
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Love: heartbreak, lovesickness
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward; Deutsch, Gustav

Zywa Cradle

Along the curtain, the caress
of the wind that embraces me

in the middle of the sun window
of the floor of the room

my feet on the carpet
reach deep into the earth

my heat salutes the heat
my breath kisses the wind

I pull the bed into the sunlight
and cradle me in well-being

stretched out and opened wide
I glide into the world

Poem 1177
Amsterdam, 2017-03-10
A woman in the sun (Edward Hopper) - 1961
Painting
Film "Shirley: visions of reality (2013, Gustav Deutsch)
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Love: for yourself
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward; Deutsch, Gustav

Zywa On the balcony at Grandma's

Grandma is bored, she waits
for my wedding and perhaps
she fantasises that I'm getting pregnant

How would it have been
with grandfather and her in bed?
We don't talk about that

just about the afternoons
in the sun, gaining some
colour for the summer

She would have liked that, but
at that time people thought differently
Anyway, bikinis did not yet exist

So much has changed, she reads it
to me from the magazine
and I laugh at her astonishment

She is old, her hair as white
as the walls in this sun, lovely
My friend does not have to come yet

Poem 4781
Amsterdam, 2022-11-07
Second Story Sunlight (Edward Hopper) - 1960
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Family: grandma / grandpa
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Real Buttocks

A second, a stain flies over
the wall, a seagull

the evening is brewing and I
lie in my shirt on the bed

and read Plato, the allegory
of the prisoners in the cave

I hear my husband, close quickly
the book and turn around

with my back to him
I pretend that I'm asleep. He comes

and sits next to me, unpleasantly
warm against me

My buttocks are exposed
but he takes no notice of that

Poem 1202
Amsterdam, 2017-03-12
Excursion into philosophy (Edward Hopper) - 1959
Painting
Film "Shirley: visions of reality (2013, Gustav Deutsch)
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Love: wish (action)
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward; Deutsch, Gustav

Zywa Cafetaria

It is too high here
and too empty, and that man
over there is observing me
so awkwardly

He apparently has nothing
to do, he's knotted up and keeps
looking past me, squinting
at my breasts

His second cigarette
does not soothe him either
his thumb is tense
of desire

I can't go anywhere
there are no stores in this quarter
to escape
if he trails behind me

Should I just nod
to him, kindly
as the sunlight
and have a chat?

Poem 4062
Amsterdam, 2021-10-29
Sunlight in a Cafetaria (Edward Hopper) - 1958
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Manly (aggression)
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa No man's

On the way
I ended up in a no man's house
in no-man's time and no man's land

The bed is queen-
size, enough place
for a king, if he

is good for more
than sleeping, than having sex
for more than once

In the empty hotel room
the window is a command
to look outside

Narrow ornamental curtains
always a view, always
being exposed

It is strange, nobody is living
in this beautiful place, here
I would like to live

Squeaking wheels
in the hallway, a clicking door
and it's quiet. What kind

of person may that be?
Shall I start to unpack
my suitcase anyway?

Poem 1474
Amsterdam, 2017-08-02
Western Motel (Edward Hopper) - 1957
Painting
Film "Shirley: visions of reality (2013, Gustav Deutsch)
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Love: wish (thought)
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward; Deutsch, Gustav

Zywa Until the reception calls

Out of fashion, out-dated
there's no help for it, so let me be
unattractive, rejected
because I show myself so conspicuously
and attract attention needlessly

That's how I'm seen. I am seen
and the whispering amuses me
although nobody talks to me

And you let me wait again
until the reception calls
that you are there

So I just sit here
looking out the window
I am used to it, there is nothing to see
at the back of the hotel
and it is getting dark

You always were impatient
My make-up took too long for you
and you sat angry in the car

but if I behaved exactly
the way you had conceived
you could really be sweet

Poem 4813
Amsterdam, 2022-11-13
Hotel Window (Edward Hopper) - 1956
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Old age: watching
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Our promise

The morning sunlight
on our face, our house
of brownstones, the promise
of the future that we chose

It is really starting now, we will
walk along the channeled stream
and the children will play
under the pines on the hill

Here we want to root
broadly and deeply
until the sun sets

We have unpacked our stuff
the cards with congratulations
next to the vase with tulips

the bed open
the house inaugurated

Poem 1683
Amsterdam, 2018-02-17
Sunlight on brownstones (Edward Hopper) - 1956
Painting
Film "Shirley: visions of reality (2013, Gustav Deutsch)
Collection: NightWatch
Keywords: Promise (human), Future: wish
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward; Deutsch, Gustav

Zywa As usual

He is late, as usual
It's his car, he decides
when we go home
At least, if he does come

And after the party he will say: Come
it was a nice evening, wasn't it?
but if he absolutely needs to
I'll let him, I'll let him

come until he screams
for mercy - nobody can hear it
The wind will blow, the grass will wave
and I will turn around to sleep

I love him, I know why
and he should be able to do better
I am worth it, and he too
If I only could teach him

Poem 4787
Amsterdam, 2022-11-08
South Carolina Morning (Edward Hopper) - 1955
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keywords: Love: flawed, Manly (dominance)
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa The people in their houses

Daydreaming in the tower
of concrete, manning
the office, that's not too bad
on a sunny day

I just have to point
my nose out, count
the chimneys, and I don't
have to pay attention to clouds

Nobody comes
only me, in the morning
with a packed lunch
and a clean mind

for new ideas
about the people in the houses
below me, I know a few
who show themselves sometimes

Poem 4042
Amsterdam, 2021-10-21
Office in a Small City (Edward Hopper) - 1953
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Life: course (overview)
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Beach House

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

Poem 4811
Amsterdam, 2022-11-13
Sea Watchers (Edward Hopper) - 1952
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Love: seducing
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Heir

The stone is smooth, always cool
always the same blue
and at home in my pocket

We arrived and we are on the way
We live and stay
at this hotel today

The view is wonderfully boring
You hear the trains rush
over the passing track

Jeanette has taken off her travel clothes
She's reading, it's too early
to go down for dinner

We're doing well together, there's enough
to do, in between the breaks, enough
to see in nothing special

if you have an eye for it
and give caring attention
to others

as heir of a piece of world

Poem 4070
Amsterdam, 2021-10-30
Hotel by a Railroad (Edward Hopper) - 1952
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Care: earth / environment
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward
Dedicated to: Ruud J, Ruud J, Ruud J, Ruud J, Ruud J

Zywa Morning sun

In the morning sun, on the bed
at the wide open window
I breathe-in the world and
my breath into the world

I no longer feel love
from him, only his worries
he doesn't want to talk, life
is flowing past us

he is a good man
yet I will leave
for a new home
empty but light and spacious

Poem 1204
Amsterdam, 2017-03-12
Morning sun (Edward Hopper) - 1952
Painting
Film "Shirley: visions of reality (2013, Gustav Deutsch)
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Love: heartbreak, lovesickness
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward; Deutsch, Gustav

Zywa A chink in time

The sun falls diagonally
along the shadow of the extension
upon the threshold of the house
upon the woman in the door

What did draw her
to this outpost of the old?

where there is no path anymore
to get there
where there is no fence, no border
where everything is open, empty

without a beginning
of going somewhere

There's a chink in the curtains
her long shirt falls open
and her body senses
a presence

something
going to happen

Poem 4078
Amsterdam, 2021-10-31
High Noon (Edward Hopper) - 1949
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Future: wish
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Summer evening

On the veranda, we wait
for coolness, a fresh shower
Only with us there is light

Nobody sees us
nobody is at home
What is he thinking of?

Not of me, fortunately
I'm already hot
in my underwear

I keep quiet
otherwise he'll fancy
and that takes me too long

The nights are so short
we need sleep
no sweaty sex

Poem 4074
Amsterdam, 2021-10-31
Summer evening (Edward Hopper) - 1947
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Summer
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Dream hotel

The lights are always on in the villa
with the black awnings and in
the rooms of the rear building
where you never see anyone

The tourists coming here, must be
a cover, it is a quiet hotel
Sometimes someone plays the piano -
a clear tension in the night

The whole situation makes me think
of acts that I know from films
and wish to experience
only that way:

a beautiful man who desires me
with whom I can do everything, veiled
in the middle, surrounded by lust
and pleasure as a second skin

Poem 4799
Amsterdam, 2022-11-10
Rooms for Tourists (Edward Hopper) - 1926
Painting
Book "Traumnovelle" ("Rhapsody: A Dream Novel" / "Dream Story", 1925, Arthur Schnitzler)
Film "Eyes Wide Shut" (1999, Stanley Kubrick)
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Fantasy: playing
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward; Schnitzler, Arthur

Zywa American Dream [2]

There is a fresh wind
there is a new world blowing
through the city, I see
my life in the distance

lying to my feet
Young men aspire to me
they give me everything that's needed
for the new time

They are the promise
I carry its torch
They are the deed
I am the promise

I promise heaven
on earth, my breasts
are full, my dress
is transparent

After every conception
I am a virgin again
After every conception
I am still a virgin

Poem 4086
Amsterdam, 2021-11-01
Summertime (Edward Hopper) - 1943
Painting
Statue "Liberty Enlightening the World" (1886, Frédéric Bartholdi)
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Future: unknown
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Outside there's a thunderstorm

In an armchair at the hotel reception
I am practising my lines
outside there's a thunderstorm
the rain rattles each time
the doors open

Repeating sentences
in between, watching
the public theatre
of the beautiful outside
of the elderly couple

sipping a drink
and waiting impatiently for a taxi
talking about friends and acquaintances
in whom they recognise the inner sides
of the characters from the play

Poem 1472
Amsterdam, 2017-08-02
Hotel lobby (Edward Hopper) - 1943
Painting
Film "Shirley: visions of reality (2013, Gustav Deutsch)
Collection: NightWatch
Keywords: Identity: personality, Rain / Hail
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward; Deutsch, Gustav

Zywa Night Stage

How did we come in?
Can we just peg out again
to the right there, and
are the WCs behind this door?

Are we here or do we play it?
The city is asleep, are we asleep
when everyone lives?

Can we touch each other
and let each other blush, or are we
shadows on the empty scene
of our alienation?

What are we doing here, in this scenery
of deceased peace? Are we dreaming
of last masterstrokes?

The sandwich and the drinks are real
the round room is not a stage
it throws a lighthouse light
into empty streets - a beacon

that attracts night-moths
warning everyone
to stay away from here

Poem 4082
Amsterdam, 2021-10-31
Nighthawks (Edward Hopper) - 1942
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Night
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa The network

To have something to do
the attendant brushes up the pumps
In the forest it is already dark

Here it remains light, open
if you wait a few minutes
until he is out of bed

But that is no longer the case at night
The villagers refuel during the day
and long-distance traffic drives past

The economy keeps moving
The country, everyone, lives thanks
to the network (the concrete one)

and it may take some time
before it will be automated
Then occasionally someone will come

to spray the pumps clean
the fly spots will remain
and waxing will no longer be done

Poem 4789
Amsterdam, 2022-11-08
Gas (Edward Hopper) - 1940
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Economy
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa The cave

The window is up
Trains thundering along
blow fresher air inside

Time would stand still here
if there was no light driving across the room
We go

I put away the folders
pull down the window
and the blinds

Peter is thinking
Without saying a word
he turns off the light

and closes up
See you
again tomorrow

Poem 1200
Amsterdam, 2017-03-12
Office at night (Edward Hopper) - 1940
Painting
Film "Shirley: visions of reality (2013, Gustav Deutsch)
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Time: passing
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward; Deutsch, Gustav

Zywa Storm coming

We've said nothing for a while
it's quiet, the sail is tight
Swell, nothing wrong
a clear day, light blue
as far I can see

And yet we all stare
at the bell buoy, alarmingly
the sound flies away
No birds, cirrus clouds
Storm coming

The war seems to be far away
There are vague tidings
about mobilisation
Will it be everyone for themselves
or is there a winning plan?

Poem 4775
Amsterdam, 2022-11-06
Ground Swell (Edward Hopper) - 1939
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Future: understand
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Looking at the dog

I get too fat
I can't go anywhere
The grass is too high

Not for Collie
She feels at home here
For me it's a fairy tale

of Grimm, the forest is dark
it makes sounds all night
and it pushes against the house

which is not as beautiful as it seems
with the luxury glass, the frills
and the canopy above the door

It's hard working all day
In the evening we look at the dog's
running, until bedtime

Poem 4080
Amsterdam, 2021-10-31
Cape Cod Evening (Edward Hopper) - 1939
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Boredom: rest
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa La grande bellezza

The movie palace is charity
for fans and old people
helping them pass the time
I watch and I learn
the lines from Mama Capra

about the great beauty
of the dream of the senses
Giulietta is sent away
from the market, with her
homemade goat cheeses

At home in her little paradise
the former bed of the brook
now my daydream in the corner
at the entrance of the hall
bees are buzzing around

Would I rather play?
See myself?
In a hundred roles larger than life?

Poem 1112
Amsterdam, 2017-03-03
New York Movie (Edward Hopper) - 1939
Painting
Film "Shirley: visions of reality (2013, Gustav Deutsch)
Actress Giulietta Masina (1921-1994)
Collection: NightWatch
Keywords: Beauty: surroundings, Paradise
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward; Deutsch, Gustav

Zywa My lives

A little hill in the landscape
these slate roofs of the farm
under the high back and the round buttock
along the Old Country Road

Do you have to be an urbanite like me
to make the chimney smoke
and merge the images
into my own naked body

on a sheepskin in front of the fireplace
waiting for the caresses of my husband
or a lover - is that just holiday romance
or does it really happen here?

I experience it
in passing
My participation
in other people's life

Poem 4805
Amsterdam, 2022-11-12
Burly Cobb's House, South Truro (Edward Hopper) - 1933
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Together: connected
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Room in heaven

Wishing to live
in the city without
its burden, above

the chimneys, cleanly
swinging in grandma's chair
in front of the bay window

seeing the dormant mouths
of the pocked roofs
wake up without

having to smell their poison
and then also breathe it
out of solidarity with everyone

who has to live fast
in the stone world
where everything is hard

Poem 4084
Amsterdam, 2021-11-01
Room in Brooklyn (Edward Hopper) - 1932
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Elite
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Slowly the night falls

My dear, my dear
and I are bored
he is surfing

the internet and I practise
not to disturb him
fingerings in the air

I will go away, move
and he? frets himself
looking for a way out

Slowly the night falls
silently I close the piano
if only I could help him

Foot by foot four passes
to behind his chair, gently
I touch him, caress

an arm, he puts the screen away
and leans back, lets me
wrap my arms around him

quietly he lays his hands on mine
If only he had tears, words
if need be, passionate kisses

Poem 1203
Amsterdam, 2017-03-12
Room in New York (Edward Hopper) - 1932
Painting
Film "Shirley: visions of reality (2013, Gustav Deutsch)
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Love: change / end
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward; Deutsch, Gustav

Zywa Love alone

Hours alone, living small
in a hotel room
without dying

going crazy or
staying behind
alone forever

like hell and purgatory
in the evening
on the stage

I do miss my children here
beside me on the bed, my love
my life without drama

without the decisive end
from which the audience wants to learn
to understand what life is

Poem 1473
Amsterdam, 2017-08-02
Hotel room (Edward Hopper) - 1931
Painting
Film "Shirley: visions of reality (2013, Gustav Deutsch)
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Missing: absence
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward; Deutsch, Gustav

Zywa Set piece

On the photo you don't see
that the water stands still
and you can think

that the sea has almost taken
the land and the house
will soon drift away

A person just has to take
other points of view
to find out something

and to keep living in the world
not in appearances, not in set
pieces of one's own fantasy

empty, unless actors populate them
of whom you no longer know after a while
whether they are acquaintances of you

but your own images nestle
in your head, they fit exactly
whereas the world is uncomfortable

Poem 4816
Amsterdam, 2022-11-14
House By An Inlet (Edward Hopper) - 1930
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Perception: critical
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Your street

It's still early, no customers
nobody on the way to work
everything like yesterday
the fire hydrant always ready
and night rounds against theft

Here you do your shopping
here you go to the barber
here your friends live
this is your view, your street
your neighbourhood, your home

where you can sleep quietly
without scary dreams
life is very good
in order here, with neighbours
who know you all

I would die here
or go crazy, unless
I was living with you -
nothing else to do
than being with you every night

Poem 4777
Amsterdam, 2022-11-06
Early Sunday Morning (Edward Hopper) - 1930
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Life: environment
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa My #eot

The sky is burning, mists
push forward, the signs tilt down
Everyone lives longer

than the world in which he grew up
We have to withdraw
or change

The watchtower is unmanned
dogs whine in the distance
This city may no longer exist

as it was, its theatres
have been declared unnecessary
The last players watch

but now it is real
they find it difficult to enjoy
the beauty of the downfall

that, since hundreds of generations
has been flattening glorious empires
to heroic stories

Who will, without self-interest
sing the praises of the good
that I have known?

Poem 4088
Amsterdam, 2021-11-01
Sunset on the Railway (Edward Hopper) - 1929
Painting
#eot = end of times
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Old age: watching
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Chinese tea

The woman behind my sister
looks outside, and her husband
is also busy

with his own thoughts
I wonder why
she herself looks past me

although she wanted to bridge
the distance she felt
and now I feel the same

She has changed
her breasts are too full
in the tight sweater

and her lipstick is too red
so unapproachably girlish
under the helmet of her hat

We have finished our tea
They'll stare us out
if we don't order a new pot

Poem 4068
Amsterdam, 2021-10-30
Chop Suey (Edward Hopper) - 1929
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Distance / Detachment
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Dream Super Woman

I imagine how I am sitting here
seen from the bridge, with the dark room
behind me, from which the hand
of a ghost could loom for a moment

to give me, out of sight, a push
so that I'll be smashed, like dictators
have it done to opponents
I sometimes dream of it

that I eliminate them and their successors
to take away the repression, I
as an unknown super woman
of humanity

It should happen on a large scale
all in one fell swoop, finally an omnipotence
that nobody can escape
Yes, if that, yes if, if

Poem 4783
Amsterdam, 2022-11-07
From Williamsburg Bridge (Edward Hopper) - 1928
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Religion: allmightiness
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Across the street

She bends over, her buttocks on show
while she puts her shoes away
She never looks through the window

I never can make contact with her
across the street and expose
me and my desire

It is hot, it's blowing so hot
through the city that I would leave
space in between us, caress her

only lightly, not lie against her
and first put out the light
or close the curtains, with a chink

by the window, happy to lie
awake from the heat, next to her
close to her body

Poem 4605
Amsterdam, 2022-08-08
Night windows (Edward Hopper) - 1928
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Desire (wish-dream)
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Canopy bed

I wander along the stores
which make the pitch dark less scary
although you never know who may pop up

and that would not be Prince Charming
who can break through his spell
with my love, so that instantly
the shop window is a marriage bed
with sky blue curtains

and we get an enema because
of the spurning the chewable tablets
to let go of the past
and to seal our future
only dressed in a crown

with the red plug in his butt
and the green one in mine
The girls from my work
escort us to the bed
which we mount under applause

Their hands lay us down
and rub us up
for the grand finale

Poem 4795
Amsterdam, 2022-11-09
Drug Store (Edward Hopper) - 1927
Painting
Laxative "Ex-Lax" (chewable tablets)
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Love: romance
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Brief break on the road

A brief break on the road
too tired for a nap
or to really eat anything
Which they don't have here

It's no use
to take my coat off
I just keep that one
glove on as well

I wish I was at home, in bed
Not those bright lights, not that
endless dark night
still to go

Poem 4005
Amsterdam, 2021-10-10
Automat (Edward Hopper) - 1927
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Journey: on the way
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward
Dedicated to: Maria Godschalk, Maria Godschalk, Maria Godschalk, Maria Godschalk, Maria Godschalk

Zywa Man on the street

On the low steps in front
of the open door
in the empty street

a man is sitting
with crossed arms
his lips sucking

a cigar -
thick lips, never
may they kiss me

He peeps up
to my belly -
the sneak

in uncrushable work clothes
free from overt suspicions
but never someone looks back

He is politely avoided
with a nod, quick steps
and thoughts to forget

Poem 4064
Amsterdam, 2021-10-29
Sunday (Edward Hopper) - 1926
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Manly (aggression)
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Nude I play to be naked

Occasionally someone is looking
Then I play a role

in his head, as the girl
from the other side, the girl
with too long hair
to see her breasts well

In the shadow months
the apartment blocks remain gloomy
Then I close the curtains
and wander through the pattern

in this same soft chair
in which I am completely free
and experience my firmness
breathing inwards from the outside

knowing what it is
to exist - then it's nice
to be nude and play to be naked
and seduce someone

with what I could
desire and do
in broad daylight
if I were not alone

Poem 4044
Amsterdam, 2021-10-21
Eleven a.m. (Edward Hopper) - 1926
Painting
Nude = without clothes, unprotected
Naket = clothes taken off, uncovered
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Body: naked
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Present

Not dinner time yet, on bed
I am drawing you, your back
the book and the red candle
the almost empty mirror image

We've seen enough
of the city today and no longer
immediately jump on each other
even though we're on vacation

I love you equally profound -
looking, drawing and feeling
how absently totally present
you are, your bare shoulder

which I caress with my eyes
your full attention
for the story and for me
as soon as you put the book down

It's something from years
elusively there
even if we don't pay attention to it
or if it's absent for a while

Poem 4807
Amsterdam, 2022-11-12
Interior (Model Reading) (Edward Hopper) - 1925
Painting; hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Love: intimacy (of it all)
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward
Dedicated to: Dory dK, Dory dK, Dory dK, Dory dK, Dory dK

Zywa Raging

It's quiet in the cemetery
next door, new life rushes
past over iron bars
and this makes me crazy, it thunders
through the rooms where I played

I empty them out and I smoke them out
with Nag Champa, with tears
in my eyes I close the windows
and still the walls get thicker
from the raging, they eat it up

just like me, it haunts my mind
that there is a smell in the basement
where mammy in the rocking chair
commands that I am not as sweet
as her new friend

but I don't want a new friend
I want everything as it was
slow and simple
quiet and familiar, silence
without a graveyard

Poem 4072
Amsterdam, 2021-10-30
House by the Railroad (Edward Hopper) - 1925
Painting
Film "Psycho" (1960, Alfred Hitchcock)
Town of Haverstraw (New York)
Collection: NightWatch
Keywords: Psyche, USA
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward; Hitchcock, Alfred

House on the railway,

no one stays here, people are --

only passing by.



Huis aan het spoor, hier	Haus an der Eisen-
verblijf je niet, hier kom je --	bahn, man lebt hier nicht, man geht --

alleen maar voorbij.	hier nur schnell vorbei.

Poem S2563
Amsterdam, 2025-02-10
Railroad Crossing (Edward Hopper) - 1923
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Home: residence / work
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Demon

The yellow glow scares me
Already this afternoon, when things got blurry
yet I seemed to be awake for a second
from the pain in my belly

It shouldn't be, I don't want it
My belly must be safe
for the baby, hopefully
it will soon be over

here, in my own bed
oh, what is happening?
I gotta get out, close the curtain
against that dreadful moon

All is well, the doctor said
but I couldn't get up
and not thank him
I just lay there

Guy smiled and the doctor shove
something into me, not as nice and sweet
as I am used to with Guy
not even in my wildest dreams

Poem 4801
Amsterdam, 2022-11-11
Moonlight Interior (Edward Hopper) - 1923
Painting
"Rosemary's Baby" (book 1967, Ira Levin; film 1968, Roman Polanski)
Faust-legend (1587, Johann Spies)
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Angel / Devil
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward; Levin, Ira

Zywa Night in the park

He reads the newspaper
from end to end, at night
under a lamppost in the park

I say to myself
about myself

I read the newspaper, I also
said to the officers in their car
though I'm listening more

to the rustling and the sounds
of the city, the reports
are not that interesting

Yes, I'm better off here

Poem 5707
Amsterdam, 2025-11-02
Night in the park (Edward Hopper) - 1921
Etching
Collection: NightWatch
Keywords: Night, City (plants, animals)
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Viaduct over the railway

Among the children
on their toes, leaning
forward on the wall
(never a daredevil
to climb on top of it)
I am shaking again
from a freight train

At first my parents sent
someone with me when
I, straight after school
and at the weekend
(far too often, they thought)
spend hours looking
from this bridge near the station

I recognise the old and new
models blindly, by their sound
the vibration of the viaduct
the Doppler effect, and their smell
no matter how hard the wind blows
From here you can go out
into the wide world

Poem 4793
Amsterdam, 2022-11-09
Small Town Station (Edward Hopper) - 1920
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keywords: Attention: observe, Journey: in the spirit
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

Zywa Summer wound

The door is open
Something happened and I
don't dare to move

Was there a man?
Where are her clothes?
What is this smell?

Should I call the police?
Her hand lies protectively
between her legs

Did she hear me?
She doesn't look up, something
is wrong, she is despondently

slumped against the bed
the sheets pulled to the floor
under her bare lower body

the clip still in her hair

Poem 4066
Amsterdam, 2021-10-30
Summer Interior (Edward Hopper) - 1909
Painting
Collection: NightWatch
Keyword: Rape (at home / family)
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

It's like a Hopper

painting, sitting on a bench --

next to my father.



Als een schilderij	Wie ein Gemälde
van Hopper, met mijn vader --	von Hopper, neben Vater --

samen op de bank.	auf einer Parkbank.

Poem H4293
Amsterdam, 2023-11-20
Scenes with My Father (Biserka Suran) - 2022
Documentary "Scenes with My Father" - Conversation on a bench in front of an abandoned factory; there is a loudspeaker next to the entrance - Scenery as a painting by Edward Hopper (Nyack 1882-1967)
Collection: New Ago
Keywords: Contact: closeness, Parents: father(hood)
Tribute to: Suran, Biserka; Hopper, Edward

He's reading the news,

at night under a lamppost --

alone in the park.



Hij spelt de krant, 's nachts	Er liest die Zeitung,
onder een lantarenpaal --	nachts unter der Laterne --

alleen in het park.	ganz allein im Park.

Poem S2999
Amsterdam, 2025-11-02
Night in the park (Edward Hopper) - 1921
Etching
Collection: Local tardiness
Keywords: Alone: loner / single, City (plants, animals)
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward

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