Zywa

Zywa Breathe

No fast traffic here
no high steel and concrete
in the streets, but
walkable space

The sun draws attention
away from us, towards the light
on the black facades on the harbour
the white cornices and red tiles:

the picture for the photos
of the tanned tourists
on the terrace of the tanhouse
who walk into our gardens

as if we live here
in an open-air museum
and should praise
their silly insolence

as a decent interest
But we can live with it
The visitors walk around
in a parallel reality

and we have real neighbours
a wide sky, the wide water
and the green island
We can breathe here

as the wood breathes
in the seasons
as the wind breathes
in the grass

Poem 5273
Amsterdam, 2023-09-04
Marken (nowadays a peninsula)
Tan: yellow- or red-brown dye, made from ground oak bark (which contains a lot of tannin)
Tanhouse: tannery (the name of a café-restaurant at the harbour: de Taanderij)
Collection: Plasma
Dedicated to: Rob Z

Zywa Pay for oppression

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

Poem 5157
Amsterdam, 2023-05-04
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

Beach (paraglider)
Egmond aan Zee, 2021-10-25
Collection: Photo's 2021

Beach (lee)
Noordwijk aan Zee, 2021-10-14
Collection: Photo's 2021

Parasol (beach)
Noordwijk aan Zee, 2021-10-14
Collection: Photo's 2021

The Destroyed City

wails heartlessly with long arms --

to the empty sky.



De Verwoeste Stad	Die Zerstörte Stadt
jammert met lange armen --	jammert mit langen Armen --

naar de lege lucht.	zum leeren Himmel.

Poem H2692
Amsterdam, 2020-05-03
The Destroyed City (Ossip Zadkine)
Bombing of the heart of Rotterdam on May 14th, 1940
Collection: Being my own museum
Tribute to: Zadkine, Ossip

Village (drawbridge)
Edam, 2019-06-22
Collection: Photo's 2019

Zywa I will maintain

This is my place, here
I was born and here I stayed
tree, mountain, rock in the storm

Clouds flee
from the wind of time
but I'm steady, I know what it's like

My father cut me
and put me athwart the wind
like a ship's mast

under large sails, anchors
deep into the bottom, firm
like the Horse of Marken

     My sons are stubborn
     I have learned from it
     I must be strict

     if need be, beat my wife
     ignore what she means well
     and curtail her freedom

     for free mothers make sons free
     to think that new ideas
     sail faster than the wind

     But a man knows better
     It is the beginning of the end
     if he deson't end every beginning

Poem 2027
Amsterdam, 2019-01-13
Je maintiendrai (I will maintain) is the motto of William of Oranje (1533-1584) and the kingdom Netherlands (since 1815)
Collection: Short Sermons

Surf (pier)
Scheveningen, 2018-06-21
Collection: Photo's 2018

Beach (pier)
Scheveningen, 2018-04-18
Collection: Photo's 2018

Zywa No reason

Nothing important happened
today, we were Far Out

sitting on a beach terrace space
sun on me, wind on me, free

experiencing the world and myself
comprehending a gull, its attention

to fried fish, in the blink of an eye
feeling the somersault of the surfer

in the distance in my blood
breathing people in and out

cartwheels through my body
and windmills on the horizon

the moving and changing
in variations of the same, no reason

for sickening emotions
Could I have learned this sooner

could my brain have been different
or wouldn't I have been human then?

Poem 1361
Amsterdam, 2017-05-19
Beach tent "Far Out" in Zandvoort
Vipassana
Collection: Summer birds
Dedicated to: Claudia A

Zywa Outer refuge

Shorn sheep warm themselves in the sun
shade under the crooked trees

a bathtub tilted to a trough
the dike ditch a ribbon of red algae

peeled signs on the border
water and land

the rippling nibbling on the slope
grass beds along the crest-path

I walk along the wide water
no screeching tyres here

sometimes on Sou'wester days
the seagulls and the wind

laundry flapping at the back
white as the sails in the lurid light

the sea level silvered by the sky
the horizon bent between the banks

the water arches over the green valley
swaying and waving seaweed nymphs

charm beneath the waves
treasures seemingly for the taking

golden yellow stones in the Shire Sea

Poem 1095
Amsterdam, 2017-03-01
Refuge: village upon a terp
Collection: Plasma
Dedicated to: Rob Z

Harbour (homes)
Rotterdam, 2013-02-02
Scheepmakershaven (Shipbuilders-harbour), seen from the Leuve-harbour
Collection: Photo's 2013

Water (Shire-Sea)
Marken, 2011-09-25
Gouwzee (Shire-Sea)
Collection: Photo's 2011

Beach (steel plant)
Wijk aan Zee, 2010-07-08
Collection: Photo's 2010

Harbour mole
Wijk aan Zee, 2010-07-08
Noordpier, Noordzeekanaal (Ellen dM, Peter V)
Collection: Photo's 2010

Beach (jellyfish)
Egmond aan Zee, 2010-07-03
Collection: Photo's 2010

Beach (dune)
Egmond aan Zee, 2010-07-03
Collection: Photo's 2010

Beach (seaweed)
Egmond aan Zee, 2010-07-03
Collection: Photo's 2010

Beach (fun)
Egmond aan Zee, 2010-07-02
Collection: Photo's 2010

Beach (pillars)
Egmond aan Zee, 2010-07-02
Collection: Photo's 2010

Brook
Hilversum, 2010-06-26
Spanderswoud
Collection: Photo's 2010

Lane
Hilversum, 2010-06-26
Spanderswoud
Collection: Photo's 2010

Zywa Skirting along the sea

Tires hum, backs are bent
clouds of words drift along:
cyclists skirting along the sea

They pedal and talk
but don't smell
what I smell
don't look like I look

They sweat out fragrances
repeat their fiddle-faddle in monologues

They feel important