Cokkie, the painter

I met Cokkie du Mortier today. 

She won the Prix de Rome (Amsterdam) for her painting while at the Academy in Amsterdam in the sixties.
Cokkie is a good friend that I thought I'd post a poem I wrote...

THE PAINTER

Come look at my paintings

Look closely and see

Inside them you will find

The scattered bits of me.

I was here before, you know,

It has taken me a million years to grow

But all the time I still can see

The eternal child inside of me.

I could have been my mother's mother

And my father could have been another;

Who chooses those who must be born

Sews the seed like scattered corn.

There is no plan that I can see,

My paintings are my search for me.

Look close, look close and see

My paintings all have bits of me.

Incidentally, another friend Jolanda a.k.a. Walkyri made the poem into a song. She has collaborated with the brothers Eelco and Arjan van Elst of Inner-voice for a CD and you could hear a sample of the Painter in their Myspace page. Just scroll on the music box and search for The Painter and listen for their version.

And you can also listen here for an earlier version she gave me: