Zywa

Zywa Counseling

We shake hands, finally
I am off the waiting list
and out of my own waiting room -
with someone who, just like mama
listens to me

to help me to know what helps me
what may work for me, someone who
will shout Action! and Stop!
from time to time, so that I get out
of the path in the vicious cycle

which I know better than I
would like, and even though
I have to get my body
with its afflictions moving
with too little energy

I still want to trust that
I can do it, can and will
have to do it myself, and
that I will find a place
where I'm not on the side

Poem 5847
Amsterdam, 2026-02-02
The Misunderstanding 'Psychotherapy' (Flip Jan van Oenen)
Enduring (Flip Jan van Oenen) - 2019
Books from 2019 and 2025
Collection: It takes a lot of tries to make a début
Keywords: Hope (passive), Equivalence
Tribute to: Van Oenen, Flip Jan
Dedicated to: Marije S

Zywa More energy

I've grown accustomed
to myself, my changed
body, my different
expectations

and the slumber
of old desires and needs
though I can't get used
to having to put in

so much effort
just to keep functioning
and to be able to go
to sleep contentedly

It is what it is
I am who I am
and the love of others
I can hardly reciprocate

but my divided attention
goes out to them, perhaps
there will be more
energy flowing between us

Poem 5677
Amsterdam, 2025-10-06
Collection: On living on [1]
Keyword: Life: survival (effort)
Dedicated to: Maria Godschalk, Marije S

Zywa Always a new start

I'm not addicted, but
I can't do without
the cocktails
of medications, of doctoring

to rein in
without pulling me over
This is who I am, I am
what I eat and what I take

side effects included
both body and mind
under pressure, daily
I have to do exercises

of the muscles, the joints
and to make my mind
flexible
for what I can do then

Every day a new start
for what needs to be done
and for the brief time
when energy flows freely

Poem 5675
Amsterdam, 2025-10-06
Collection: On living on [1]
Keyword: Life: survival (effort)
Dedicated to: Maria Godschalk, Marije S

Zywa Patterns

Whether they were clouds
birds, or tea leaves
people searched
under the tides, the seasons

and the migration of the flocks
for more
patterns as a hold
against sudden dangers

That is their own
pattern, I too
can be myself
and rely

on evolutionary wisdom
which with all the stupidity
and adversity will continue
to make the best of it

and on human resources
developed from the need
for everything going to be okay
even if it is not possible

Poem 5351
Amsterdam, 2023-10-29
Collection: New Ago
Keywords: Order: pattern, Human: mankind
Dedicated to: Marije S

Wow, on my birthday

I receive a lot more thought-

mail than I can read.



Op mijn verjaardag
krijg ik meer gedachtenpost --	es viel mehr Gedankenpost --
dan ik lezen kan.	als ich lesen kann.

Poem H3534
Amsterdam, 2022-10-26
Collection: New Ago
Keyword: Attention: for someone
Dedicated to: Marije S

Zywa The Trumpless Child (Autumn)

Games must be played
seriously and fair
otherwise it is serious

That's exactly the problem
There are always deal breakers
unreachable

if one wants to call them to order
and cries out in the wilderness
so you have to go higher

higher than the highest
court, to the star
of everyone's consciousness above

the illusions on earth
and the half knowledge
of the restless people

who know no silence
and fill their thoughts
with duties and wishes and

make claims on others
But I raise a shield
against their trumps

Poem 4153
Amsterdam, 2021-11-28
The star of everyone's consciousness: Omkar, the symbol of Om (the primal sound of the universe); the dot represents Samadhi (one consciousness)
Collection: The Yellow House Museum
Keywords: Awareness: reality, Autumn
Dedicated to: Marije S

Zywa In the light of the moon

I carried enough
buckets today

Sometimes they are heavy
Nothing to do about it
One time I will come
to know a bit, little bit
about the content

and then it remains the question whether
I would have wanted to know it before

In bed I mount
my horse, my banner
in the holder, flapping
in the speed of my wishes
lighting up in the night

of impossibilities
and a new start

The moon leads me
It empties the buckets
so that I have nothing
to lose and can jump
-- over my worries

Poem 4092
Amsterdam, 2021-11-02
Collection: Moons
Keyword: Letting go
Dedicated to: Marije S

Zywa King Cow

A profession lasts and lasts
a lifetime in weal and woe
about 100,000 hours

of doing what is possible
as if you don't care
that your wishes are impossible

doing what is possible
as if it is all over
and you enjoy every addition

alternately gasping for air
in the flood and being dry
in the ebb in the midst of the hissing

breathing of the algae the waves
of divided CoWorking
in a world full of kings and cows

but I am neither
Why should I choose
Cow or King?

I know my responsibilities
and my duties as a citizen
how I should behave

as a man, what I should do
and not do, and what my path is
as a woman, how I am just a person

in clothes that caress me

Poem 3212
Amsterdam, 2020-10-21
Diatom/alga (bacillariophyt) Hantzchia virgata, a eukaryote
Collection: New Ago
Keyword: Ambition
Dedicated to: Marije S

Zywa The Embrace

Bird's eye view over houses and workshops
erected in the land that neatly combed
still shows a pimple here and there

Everything orderly piled up, ready-to-wear
leaving me free to do what I want
to do, my profession, my plans

despite everything, with the help
that I need and have received
as a gift, of course I want to

celebrate, embrace my life and the uncertainty
ahead with heart and soul
continue counting the results

and ever devise new possibilities
to measure reality
Again I rearrange

my powers, I fly like a bird
with borrowed wings
to unreachable places

and tonight we cross over
to celebrate that together
in restaurant The Embrace

Poem 2485
Amsterdam, 2019-10-28
Collection: New Ago
Keyword: Together: connected
Dedicated to: Marije S

Zywa Paradise song

For better, for worse
I am asking, asking
for knowledge of the universe
the commonplaces and
myself, to understand

the earthly paradise
Time after time I am choosing twice
becoming less young and more wise
willingly paying the price
unless it was for the asking

The years of boring, boring
school-hours of gazing, gazing
at bare walls and the ceiling
have turned into revealing
myself by asking, asking
and learning, learning

what to do when, may-
be I better wait and stay
or take a turn and go away
not depend on chance alone
but make decisions of my own

I am talking, talking
with a girl like me
talking tall and small
about ourselves we agree
with the sayings on the wall

We are asking, asking
about the wheres and whos
the manners, the rules, the dos
and don'ts, all the kinds
of problems on our minds

In the meantime I play
the piano every day
The universe was waiting, waiting
for my asking, asking
so I did, and now I'm walking, walking

to spend the odd hours playing, playing
the pianos, still in stock
inside a warehouse-block
I am playing, playing
in a paradise

Poem 155
Amsterdam, 2010-11-13
Collection: Greeting from before
Keyword: Teenager (growing up)
Dedicated to: Marije S

Marije
Leeuwarden, 2002-11-30
Making Santa surprise gifts
Collection: 2002
Keyword:
Dedicated to: Marije S

Marije
Texel, 2000-08-18
Jetty of De Vriendschap (The Friendship)
Collection: 2000
Keywords: , Texel
Dedicated to: Marije S

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