Tekst: Marianne Vanderveen-Kolkena, april 2021
Muziek: JV, april-juli 2021

She said she felt
what might be good
what would be right
is if we yelled
and understood
the sheer delight
of feeling held
in all that could
be going right
for dreams and aspirations

She said she felt
what might be good
what would be right
is if we dealt
with all that could
obstruct the light
on steps that spelled
success and stood
upright despite
tough themes and tribulations

So blaze and burn
ignite, shine bright
with dancing, vivid flashes
You'll lose and learn
you'll grow, incite
and rise from glowing ashes

Each effort is a brand new start
extending courage from the heart
I'll cheerlead, catch your sparkling eyes
as you approach the sacred skies

Phoenix

Tekst: Marianne Vanderveen-Kolkena, augustus 2021
Muziek: JV, januari-juli 2019

Mountain meadows way up high
catch my eye
call me nigh and softly sigh
you can fly, reach the sky
we'll welcome you try

Share the key
I shall see
how to be
rising fearless and free

Mountain mist is drawing in
chills my skin
dismal fogs begin to win
and hide what's been blossoming
bursting out from within

Sun sets free
Clouds will be
made to flee
flowing back to the sea

Come with me
We'll climb and see
breathe and blend
and we will mend

Take my hand
as we ascend
we'll find our land

Rise

Tekst: Marianne Vanderveen-Kolkena, oktober 2021
Muziek: JV, oktober 2021

Lately I just found myself
in desolate wilderness
It seems that I’m surrounded
by a world I can’t explain
I stumble and I struggle
I stagger and I strain
I wonder and I weave myself
a wobbly web of why’s
to question all the lies
How did I end up here?

Tell me how
and where to go
Tell me when
and how to know
where I’m bound
and how to borrow
strong and steady
solid ground

Someday we could ask ourselves
with serious eagerness
if we were not betraying 
all the things we felt inside
We hustle and we hasten
we harden and we hide
We torture and we tear ourselves
through trying twists of ties
the lows against the highs
How did we end up here?

Tell me how
and where we go
Tell me when
and how to grow
when we’re bound
and how tomorrow
sees us settling
safe and sound

I ask you – do I need to smile?
Were we pretending all the while?
I ask me – can you stand the dark?
Are we attending to the spark?
Or is it time now to embrace
by leaning back with loving grace
a novel, slower pace
a deeper holding space?

Tell me why, tell me how
tell me now where we are bound

Bound

Run away

Muziek en tekst: JV, augustus 2023

Like a sponge is the vast ocean
Suck it, suck it, suck it up
All the heat from our exhausts
Exhausts, exhausts the blue forest
White turn the corals
As the life leaves from within

We are not just takers and breakers
We're not destined to ruin the earth
If we choose we can also be makers
Please prove me right for all living things' worth

Stress makes the corals
Expel their zooxanthellae
Through the naked bodies
Their skeletons, white like ours, are exposed
Bleached corals are not dead
But risk starvation and disease
And may begin to die

We are not just takers and breakers
We're not destined to ruin the earth
If we choose we can also be makers
Please prove me right for all living things' worth

No one knows what the future brings
But let’s not boil it away
You may bet on a magic fix
But wouldn’t it be wise not just to pray

'Cause if we choose we can also be makers
Please prove me right for all living things' worth


Second verse based on https://www.barrierreef.org/the-reef/threats/coral-bleaching

For the corals

Met liefde gezongen door Floor Lubberman en Jojanneke Vanderveen op de bruiloft van Hannelore Vanderveen & Ewout Lubberman, 26 augustus 2023

Verdwaal met mij, m'n lief

Blue sky

Lyrics & music: Jojanneke Vanderveen

Ik was nooit een ochtendmens
Of dat dacht ik toch althans
Maar de ochtend is het staartje van de nacht

Als je mazzel hebt dan kun je
Dansen met de Witte Wieven
Fluister in hun oor:
Wat voor dag heeft nu de nacht gebracht?

Maar oh, zo vluchtig zijn de Witte Wieven
Antwoord krijg je nooit
En als de zon over de horizon komt

Witte flarden vliegen rond
Zoeken gauw hun schuilplaats op
In het gras of in een kuil, een hunebed

Omhels me, ik wil
Dansen met de Witte Wieven
Landschap, oh zo schoon
Ik ben een kind van hier, dit vlakke land

Het licht schijnt door de schimmen van de Witte Wieven
Echo van weleer
Het zand is rijk en vol herinneringen

En als een deken deponeert het stikkend stof
Op zoek naar veenbes stikt de parelmoervlinder

Ik was nooit een ochtendmens
Of dat dacht ik toch althans
Maar de ochtend is het staartje van de nacht

Ochtendmens

She gave her a cup of hot jasmine tea.
Then sat by her side and stroked her hair.
She said: "You try to carry the weight of the world.
Now drink up your tea and curl up inside of my
embrace, like a squirrel, take your wintertime.
Then pick up your acorns and poke around."

The waves keep on coming and the question remains:
are they a threat or a quenching, playful well?
Is my sword made of iron or of plastic with paint?
Can I combat a friend or bond with an enemy?

She said: "If you still love them and you fight for that,
then don't let them ruin your faithfulness
to kindness, benevolence, to laughter and joy,
for what use would you be to your values, those loved ones
if you poison the liquid of life in your soul,
in your heart? You will die from your rotting organs."

Will you love me, my woman? Will you comfort me when
the world is so hostile and steps are like matches,
igniting the fires of rage in their guts?
Will you help me prevent my fire's extinguishing?

She said: "Put on your tutu, if you're ready to dance.
I will be with you, can you feel my body press
loosely against yours? Shall we make our arms
ascend to the clouds? Can you feel your armpits stretch?
And our ribs are like cages opening up.
A guardian bird flock dances along with us."

And I twirl, twirl, twirl until my eyes cannot see.
I collapse onto the soil and I press my cheek
against the second-hand carpet in the concrete room that
accepts me as no others can.

Godmother (I)

“You sound cheerful”, he says
as he hears me singing in the street.
“Ah, but it’s the other way around”, I say.
“Singing cheers the spirit on a cloudy day.”

I know with you I’m common.
I will not walk my life alone.
I walk with you.
A joyful smile
exudes from my
consciousness.

“You have sparkling eyes”, he says
as he sees my mother and looks back at me.
Ah, but it’s quite a task, I deem,
to keep these sparkles glistening
when life demands tenacity upstream.

Freedom of the heart’s a lifelong quest.
It’s not a state in which to be at rest.
We move along and ask each other’s help.
Together we are blessed.

Lend your shoulder, I will lend you mine.
Strength we lend each other all the time.
We build our selves but not alone.
Inspiration flows; together we are fine.

I know with you I’m common.
I will not walk my life alone.
I walk with you.
A joyful smile
exudes from my
consciousness.

I spend my life in common
with all the people that I love.
Our love shines bright
along the way.
In trust I face
tomorrow’s day.

Common

Tekst en muziek: JV, februari 2014
Piano en zang: JV, juli 2020

I’m a winged creature
and winged creatures fly.
Earthliness is fine for us,
but just provided sky.

Starlings in the winter,
joyfully up high,
Staging gorgeous spectacles,
least concern of thine.

Do you know how it hurts
when you’re beaten with a stick,
when your feathers are pulled,
and your feet are tied to brick?
And it’s not just the pain
that it causes which sickens,
but the fact that defense
makes you feel like a chick
who doesn’t know how to love,
how to love, how to love,
but just goes for the kick,
for the kick, for the kick?

I’m a woman, I’m a woman,
and it’s not that long ago that I discovered.
But you should know, I can’t be got.
Treat a human as an end,
not just as a means.
I, I will fight,
joined the womanhood,
oppose expectations that harm,
anyone’s.

Starlings in the winter,
joyfully up high,
staging gorgeous spectacles,
least concern of thine.

I’m a winged creature
and winged creatures fly.
Earthliness is fine for us,
but just provided sky.

Wings

Tame the storm, the trees are falling
Tame the storm and do it fast
Tame the storm before it drags me along
Drags me down

Tame the storm, the tiles are dropping on the ground
So come on over, tame the storm
Before it ruins everything
Everything

And although I'm standing firmly
And I won't be cast somewhere
I do still need someone to calm the storm down
Calm it down

Tame the storm, it starts to build
Please tame the storm, it's in my head
Because I don't need this cloudy sky

Music, lyrics, voice: JV
Piano: Stefan Wachauer
Bass: Ji Peng
Drums: Andrej Hočevar
2008

Tame the storm

Look around and see all those human faces
Scurrying along side by side to places I don’t know

Doing all the same huddling in the sunlight
Cherishing the warmth waiting for what might be their life

What is life? Is anyone questioning?
Is this life or am I imagining?

A teardrop flows, the feeling grows
So close, so close, stay close to me
There is no way that you can be close enough right now

I’m wondering what life could be

2008
Music, lyrics, voice: JV
Piano: Stefan Wachauer
Bass: Ji Peng
Drums: Andrej Hočevar

Jojanneke Vanderveen

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