<<<<    Click here for background information up to  2018.

Background Information  2018 to the  present

Course of life  continuation

Also in 2018, Joke translates ‘Fleur en het elfje’ into ‘Rose and the Little Fairy’ for the occasion of the 6th birthday of her grand-niece Ella in Australia.
January 2019: the poem ‘Rookwood Necropolis’ with photo impressions is placed on YouTube.

May 2019: Two more children books are ready: ‘Voor de kleintjes’ (‘For the Little Ones’), this contains a series of short rhymes illustrated by Joke following the original idea of Lenka Procházkoyá and ‘Groente is best lekker’ (‘Vegetables are Pretty Tasty’), a story about a little boy who does not like vegetables, but eventually grows to like them.

July 2019: the children's stories which Joke earlier translated into English are also printed and issued in beautiful hardcover books: ‘Nursery Rhymes about Butterflies, Bears, Pancakes and Pears’, ‘Dotty’ and ‘Joey the flying Fire Truck’.

The 2019 theme for the project ‘De Verbinding’ is ‘Getijden’ (‘Tides’). Again, Joke has produced a wave of poems which will be bundled and provided with a cover she designed herself.

In September 2019, she starts working on her last children's book. The third book about the traveling piggy bank. The grandchildren for whom she is writing this story are living in Utrecht. That’s why the piggy bank goes to Utrecht this time. As a result, they and other children who read it or are read to will learn a lot about Utrecht.

In 2020, 'Togetherness' is the subject. for the project ‘De Verbinding’ The poems that Joke writes for this theme have been bundled under the title ‘Samen wij’ (‘Together'). It also has a cover made by herself.

In 2021, the visitors of 'Het Kunstcafé Drechtsteden' are presented the theme ‘Onnavolgbaar’ ('Inimitable'). It is a theme that Joke can’t immediately work with, but inspiration comes while thinking about it, and a number of poems follow. A nice side effect is that her 1000th poem was created in this series. For the cover, she symbolically paints het ‘onnavolgbare’ (the 'inimitable').

Mid-January 2022, the children's book 'The Piggy Bank Got Travel Jitters Again' is completed.
Because the piggy bank is visiting Utrecht the official handover will take place there. On Thursday 24 March, during a festive gathering in the museum Speelklok, Utrecht alderman Anke Klein was handed a copy. The representatives of museums and other institutions that the piggy bank visits on its journey also receive a copy.
On Wednesday 11 May 2022, Joke visits the school of her granddaughters Liv and Isa for whom she wrote this book to tell about this last journey of the piggy bank.


The theme for De Verbinding 2022 is ‘Licht en/of ligt’ (‘light’ and/or ‘lie.’) Light seems the most obvious choice for Joke. She wrote poems about it in the past. She plans to bundle these poems with the new ones, for the project, but that would make the entire volume too large. Instead, she decides to split the bundle into two volumes. This means two covers to be painted. For the existing poems, she wants to make a painting after a photo of her then-young, eldest daughter. In the photo, she sees a resemblance to the way Rembrandt painted light. A narrow stripe of light directly on the little face. This volume will be titled ‘Als in een schilderij’ (‘As in a Painting.’) It takes a lot of effort and time, but in the end, she is happy with the result. For the new poems, she is inspired by a book cover. Following her own interpretation, she painted the letters ‘light’ in various bright colors on a dark background, making the letters look like illuminated neon lights.

Joke has been taking piano lessons at the Ambacht Music School for several years. After repeatedly receiving hints from one of the founders, she decides to write a series of poems about music, which she collects under the title ‘Muziek & Poëzie’ (‘Music and Poetry.’) She keeps quiet, because it has to be a surprise. It certainly is when she presents a beautifully wrapped stack of poetry booklets on November 1, 2022.

Naturally, a theme has been chosen for ‘De Verbinding’ 2023, resulting in ‘Aandacht voor je omgeving’ (‘Attention for Your Environment.’) Joke has written several poems on this topic over the years. Yet, she manages to come up with new ones. This time, she chooses a photo for the cover that her husband took at her request a few years ago. Shadow spots on the ground in a pattern, resembling a rug created by a paper cutter. The poem ‘Seeing,’ inspired by this photograph, is included in the collection.

Writing for ‘De Verbinding’ 2024 ‘Muziek en emotie’  (‘Music and Emotion’) takes her on a rollercoaster of feelings, one memory brings up another and so on. It is a nostalgic journey full of impressions and emotions, partly due to re-listening to the music or songs and watching parts of movies on YouTube.