Despite his short life and modest output, his minimalist lyrics, which are generally constituted of short, unrhymed lines without capitals or punctuation, strongly influenced a post-war generation of Dutch poets, including Gerard Reve (who enjoyed a private correspondence with Lodeizen's father, revealed in 2002 by Lodeizen's Dutch biographer).

Born into an influential family, Lodeizen was raised in great privilege as the son of the director of Müller & Company, an international trading firm.

There he befriended the poet James Merrill who, after becoming "smitten" with Lodeizen,[1] would describe him many years later as "clever, goodnatured, solitary, blond, / all to a disquieting degree".

[3] Lodeizen lost interest in his graduate biology program and returned to Europe to work (reluctantly) for his father's firm.

Lodeizen was either gay or bisexual; as a young man he had proposed marriage to a woman, but his poetry speaks of his love and desire for other men.

A selection of his poems was added to Het innerlijk behang and published in 1952, edited by J. C. Bloem, Jan Greshoff, and Adriaan Morriën, as Gedichten.