Adam and Eve had

to leave, but that damn serpent --


stayed right where it was.


Adam en EvaAdam und Eva
moesten weg, maar die rotslang --mussten weg, und die Schlange --

bleef lekker liggen.blieb da, wo sie war.

Poem S3211
Amsterdam, 2026-07-18
God on the Rocks (Jane Gardam) - 1978
Novel, chapter 21
Collection: Actively Passive
Tribute to: Gardam, Jane 
 

The birds sing their trills

out loud at the crack of dawn --


in this paradise.


De vogels zingenDie Vögel zwitschern
voor dag en dauw hun rollers --Triller vor Tau und Tag, in --

in dit paradijs.diesem Paradies.

Poem H6256
Amsterdam, 2026-05-17
Uppon la mi re (anonymous, attributed to Thomas Preston) - 1563
Composition for harpsichord, performed on May 17th, 2026 at the Organpark, by Johan Luijmes (organ)
Collection: org anp ARK 
Composer: Preston, Thomas 
 

Zywa Breakout

Animals are animals
also in paradise
they weren't safe
from each other, but

then came evil:
ruthless man
from whom even the serpent
had to flee

because of a ripe apple
on the tree in which
he danced

The garden was soon too small
for man, he broke out
and went out into the world
leaving trails

of destruction
conquering and polluting
the highest mountains
and the deepest seas

Poem 5872
Amsterdam, 2026-02-09
Collection: BloodTrunk 
 

The valley, the lakes,

in this region of Kashmir --


were once Paradise.


Het dal, de meren,Das Tal, die Seen,
hier in Kasjmir is ooit het --hierselbst in Kaschmir gab es --

Paradijs geweest.einst das Paradies.

Poem H6005
Amsterdam, 2025-11-11
The Prophet's Hair (Salman Rushdie) - 1981
Story (in: London Review of Books), also published in the collection "East, West" (1994, section "East") - Interpretation of the Paradise Story by Indian Muslims
Collection: Shadows
Tribute to: Rushdie, Salman 
 

A life without kings

becomes chaos, unless you --


are in paradise.


Zonder vorst wordt hetOhne König ist
een chaos, tenzij je in --es Chaos, es sei denn, man --

het paradijs bent.lebt im Paradies.

Poem S2219
Amsterdam, 2024-06-13
Victory City (Salman Rushdie) - 2023
Novel "Victory City" [Vijayanagar >> Bisnaga, based on Fatehpur Sikri ('Victory City', near Agra), the capital of Emperor Abdul-Fath Jalaluddin 'Akbar' (= 'the Great' >> 'Akbar the Great')], part 2 Exile, chapter 9-10
Collection: Wind
Tribute to: Rushdie, Salman 
 

Zywa The Dream Garden

In the dream garden I celebrate
the beauty of everything
that pleases me
No corpse smell anywhere

everyone a floral scent
on his paradisaical body
with heavenly senses

like Adam and Eve
and no one falls

and there's nothing to lose

Pleasures abound
everyone's wishes fulfilled

because they have changed
and no longer bite each other
The perfect world

where life is no longer
what it was, not as we
know it, a garden where
our time, time, does not exist

Poem 5536
Amsterdam, 2024-06-03
Heavenly paradise
Luke 23:43, 2 Corinthians 12:3-4, Revelations 2:7
Collection: Secrets & Believers
 

Here too: forbidden,

my love! Nowhere there is place --


for a paradise!


Ook hier: verboden,Auch hier: verboten,
mijn liefde! Er is geen plaats --meine Liebe! Keinen Platz --

voor een paradijs!für ein Paradies!

Poem S1972
Amsterdam, 2023-10-22
Departure (Arthur Rimbaud / Benjamin Britten) - 1875
Prose poem "Départ" (collection "Les Illuminations"), set to music in 1938-1939 by Benjamin Britten (opus 18)
Collection: Tardiness in Acceleration
Tribute to: Rimbaud, Arthur 
Composer: Britten, Benjamin 
 

Zywa Paradise of guns and violence

A woman with a gun
Driven out. Cast out
by her neighbours

because she was killed internally
and could feel nothing
but pain and disgust

and because they too can
no longer believe who she was
at home, in the paradise

before the arrival of the men
who use you cruelly
until they discard you

and impale the broomstick
grandma's cane, their bayonet
or a bullet in you

The woman with the gun
wants to sleep again, to feel
the warmth of the sun again

She wants to defend
a new paradise, being awake
from the nightmare

of inhumanity
and free herself from the cage
of her broken body

Poem 5090
Amsterdam, 2023-03-06
Our Bodies, Their Battlefield: what war does to women (Christina Lamb) - 2020
Relief on the grounds of the Soviet War Memorial, Treptower Park, Berlin
Soviet War Memorial
Book by Christina Lamb
Collection: Bruises
Tribute to: Lamb, Christina 
 

Zywa Hawai'i

Paradise is paved, everywhere
you can park in front of the door now
Pink walls and plastic flowers:
places where people like to be

Isn't it a shame that only afterwards
you open your eyes for what you had?
Paradise is paved, everywhere
you can park in front of the door now

All trees are saved, come, have a look
in the greenhouses of the museum!
It is not expensive to see them all
and you get bees and butterflies too!

There are greenhouses everywhere, no spots
on the apples, they won't even get brown
But last night the door slammed shut
and my beloved left in a big taxi

Poem 4662
Amsterdam, 2022-09-12
Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell) - 1970
Song (album "Ladies of the Canyon")
Collections: The drama, Loves Tricks Gains Pains in the years 2000-2009 
Tribute to: Mitchell, Joni 
 

Zywa I don't cry

Here are people living
in wet boxes
and I don't cry
I am not campaigning
for an allocation in the budget

I feel alone
just like the others
in their houses and clean clothes
who already have so much to do
and who walk by embarrassed

with a friendly greeting
that cuts off a conversation
before it can begin
and who forget this quickly
before it becomes a problem

Sometimes we give money
What else can you do
but ponder your sin-
ful needs and spend
what you have got after that

Poem 4222
Amsterdam, 2021-12-13
Another day in paradise (Phil Collins) - 1989
Song "Another day in paradise" (album "But Seriously", 1989, Phil Collins)
Collection: The drama
Tribute to: Collins, Phil 
 

The vast drowned country

has become a paradise --


full of water birds.


Het verdronken land:Ertrunkenes Land:
een paradijs geworden --ein Paradies geworden --

vol watervogels.mit Wasservögeln.

Poem H3076
Train Amsterdam-Alkmaar, 2021-10-22
Collection: Metamorphic body
 

Zywa South Paradise

They have reached the South Paradise
the land of their dream
where life is good
But they are new ones

they don't know yet
of the gnats, the stable flies
and the high water over the fields
those long months

in which they'll be forced to drudge
cutting or baking stones
for the Great House
They know nothing

of the families in their huts
who died from measles and smallpox
nothing of the hunger
through hail and locusts

Everyone is welcome there
within the invisible walls
on the fast legs
of armed horsemen

Poem 3501
Amsterdam, 2021-02-22
Pharaoh = "Great House"
3rd plague: gnats
4th plague: stable flies (swarms, dog-flies, stable flies)
5th plague: cattle-plague (pestilence, bubonic plague)
6th plague: smallpox (festering boils)
7th plague: hail
8th plague: locusts
Collection: A Home
 

Before the spring green,

for a short time: paradise --


with golden blossoms.


Vóór het lentegroen,Vor dem Frühlingsgrün
heel even: het paradijs --gibt es kurz das Paradies:

van gouden bloesems.goldene Blüten.

Poem H2839
Amsterdam, 2020-11-26
Nothing Gold Can Stay (Robert Frost) - 1923
Poem ("Yale Review" [October 1923], collection "New Hampshire")
Collection: Stream
Tribute to: Frost, Robert 
 

The planet is full,

let's get out of here, follow --


me to paradise!


De aarde is vol,Die Erde ist voll,
we moeten hier weg, volg me --wir müssen hier raus, folge --

naar het paradijs!mir ins Paradies!

Poem S1082
Amsterdam, 2020-11-15
Ideology
Collection: The Praised One
 

I am very sure,

paradises do exist --


because I lost one.


Ik weet het zeker,Ich bin mir sicher,
er bestaan paradijzen --es gibt Paradiese -- eins

Ik verloor er een.hab ich verloren.

Poem S1004
Amsterdam, 2020-04-15
Time regained (Marcel Proust) - 1927
Novel "Le temps retrouvé"
Collection: Blankets of snow
Tribute to: Proust, Marcel 
 

Zywa Great Grand

Great Grandgrandma, why
did you leave the waterland?
Wasn't there enough space

for your cattle, between the full fields?
What dreams did you have? Mine
are thin, like translucent down

My bed is hard, I drag
water and firewood
and the men can't help but

raid, unrest is boiling
in the blood of my sons
If only they come home unscathed

with a gram of gold for the danger
of the promise of the land
from which hunger drove you away

The shine of their swords
clotted, thick walls conquered
cities and kings, who knows

they were bushes, caves
and huts, village heads, the loot
some cattle and a few girls

No land of cows and tulips
where the grass is always green and sweet
the honey of the young years

when you lived in paradise

Poem 2348
Amsterdam, 2019-07-06
Thinking of Sarai, who departed from Ur on the Euphrates, via northern Mesopotamia to Goshen on the Nile, the three paradise regions for nomads)
Conquests led by Joshua
Collection: The King
 

Zywa A stone from paradise

The giant that stopped me
was a wall on the banks
of the great river, far
beyond the palaces

where servants like angels
provide a heaven on earth
for princes and princesses and always

there are naked sages begging
before the gate, warning the people
not to be under any illusions

A small hatch in the wall
opened, an old hand
handed me a pebble

a stone from paradise
on the other side of the wall
It was smooth. What to do with it?

Aren't we all
stones from paradise
on this side of the wall

where the kings suffer in seclusion
from boredom and the trouble
to keep it that way?

Poem 2286
Amsterdam, 2019-06-20
Alexander the Great (356-323) in Bharat (India), 326-325
Collection: Metamorphic body
 

Zywa Straw for everyone

Only now that I come back here
I see it as a paradise, this green land
the flowers, the golden grain
all the riches I thought to be normal

Now, the familiar overwhelms
my new eyes, filling me
with nostalgia even before
I think about leaving

Or will I stay for the rest
of my life, knowing very well
that it is soulheart work
to sleep together

wolf people and sheep people
cow, bear, and snake people
It is heartwork in paradise
for enough straw for everyone

Poem 2284
Amsterdam, 2019-06-19
Collection: Secrets & Believers
 

Zywa The sun in the north

I passed on the stories
of my life at the table
That's how Muhammad learned to talk

and to long for the Young Age
of peace and justice -
a future we dream

more beautiful than reality
but still far away. Certain
are only the greed

and the hard work
until you get ill
and prepare

to leave
for Jazira in the north
where paradise awaits

Poem 2220
Amsterdam, 2019-04-25
Islamic tradition: Aminah bint Wahab - 577
Collection: The Praised One
 

Adam and Eve left

the garden, does peace become --


unenjoyable?


Adam en EvaAdam verließ mal
verlieten de tuin, wordt vrede --den Garten, wird der Frieden --

dus ongenietbaar?denn unerträglich?

Poem H2271
Airplane Amsterdam-Marseille, 2018-09-14
Sufi, come, for bright is the mirror of the cup (Hafez) - 1350
Ghazal (Ode) 7
Collection: Willegos
Tribute to: Hafez 
 

We're not banished, here

is the Garden of Eden!


I am the watchman.


Toch niet verdreven,Wir sind nicht verbannt,
hier is de Hof van Eden!der Garten Eden ist hier!

Ik ben de wachter.Ich bin der Hüter.

Poem S0629
Amsterdam, 2017-12-29
You thought 'I was driven out, but it's still there' (Frida Vogels) - 2014
Verse "Je dacht 'ik werd verdreven, maar hij is er nog' ", published in "Diary 1977-1978" - December 14th, 1977, Bologna
Collection: Helices
Tribute to: Vogels, Frida 
 

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
Tribute to: Hopper, Edward; Deutsch, Gustav 
 

With wet feet, the storks

easily potter about --


amidst lots of food.


Met natte voetenMit nassen Füßen
lopen de ooievaars rond --gehen die Störche herum --

tussen hun eten.in ihrem Essen.

Poem H1160
Melchnau, 2015-05-14
Collection: The drama
 

Streets full of flowers

and specialised shops, can they --


be our paradise?


Straten vol bloemenSind Straßen voller
en winkels voor alles wat --Blumen und Fachgeschäfte --

zijn ons paradijs?unser Paradies?

Poem H0305
Amsterdam, 2012-07-03
Collection: BloodTrunk 
 

We build walls around

our replicate paradise --


it is almost real.


We bouwen murenWir ummauerten
om ons namaakparadijs --unser Kopieparadies --

het is bijna echt.es ist fast wie echt.

Poem H0064
Amsterdam, 2011-12-13
Collection: Migration
 

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