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Gert Strydom, 22 february 2013
Now that the autumn sun
Now that the autumn sun
pushes out its first fingers,
and the leaves of my life
are falling colourful,
while the winter wind
rustles somewhat cold through them
and I am of the opinion
that the spring and summer between us
eternally is in the past,
you do bring to my life
again new meaning.
Gert Strydom, 4 february 2013
Behind your green-brown eyes
Behind your green-brown eyes
intense secrets do hide
where at first light
next to each other we lie whispering.
Outside doves
coo, woo and flutter
while a church-bell
calls out the time
when the sun loving like us
gives its last caress to the earth
and the moon’s soft satin
which is swallowed by the darkness of the night
becomes a memory of tonight
where it already hangs naked.
Gert Strydom, 12 february 2013
Near Helderberg Hill
There’s a chill tonight
on Helderberg Hill
an icy wind blows through the trees
and it’s raining still,
as it did for days
as it does each
and every Mediterranean winter.
The sweet scent
and not that of the forest of the trees
but of lavender instead is in the breeze
and fills my lungs, fills my heart, my head
until it becomes a part of me
but big eyed you lie
in the bed next to me
and the rain outside falls on and on
with fog cordoning off the hill,
the painting on the wall,
the garden with its bush upon bush
of waving lavender
are now all gone out of sight
and a solitary pistil awakens and grows in size,
entering a calyx, a tubular corolla forming two lips
and it could have been spring
as new life is sprouting, but a chilly winter it is
in the house near Helderberg Hill
Gert Strydom, 5 february 2013
Today I saw an old man
Today I saw an old man
who is dear to me
and whose thoughts
age tried to wipe out
and he looked at me
trying to comprehend.
There was still
some intelligence in his eyes
and finally when he realized
who I am
his heart reached out
and his hand was still warm.
My heart could have broken
a thousand times
while I saw the damage
that Alzheimer’s had done,
but there was a smile
on his face
before we left
and his mind
wasn’t totally gone
and I saw the struggle in him
against forgetting
trying to reach beyond
what life would let him
and still trying
to be himself
and heard him pray
believing that God still helps.
Gert Strydom, 16 july 2012
Last
When the light dims from my eyes
there will be no fatherly hand
to hold on to mine
to feel the last pulse
of life beating
while the darkness claims me
and when I disappear from life,
glide into death
You are the Father
that I find on the other side.
[References: “Erato” by Anyte. Laaste (Last) by Riana Scheepers.]
Gert Strydom, 8 january 2013
New Year’s Eve
The year slowly comes with the ticking clock to an end,
while the new year is almost born
when the neighbours drown themselves in liquor,
and afraid of the festive sounds the cat sneaks in again.
Soberly we have our own festivities,
while outside thundering explosion on thundering explosion occurs
when the New Year is almost born
and afraid of the festive sounds the cat sneaks in again.
Later more meteorites explode
and they hang like stars to the heaven
while the neighbours gather around a barrel of wine,
and afraid of the festive sounds the cat sneaks in again.
Gert Strydom, 17 january 2013
Many people knew you well
(after Robert Browning, for Minette)
Many people knew you well,
but not one of them as free,
as in the way that you were to me
and all your achievements they do tell
but even after death they are under your spell
and they a gracious beautiful lady see
while I am struck down by iniquity
and am wondering about heaven and hell
while watery my eyes go
and spiritless you lie at final rest
while I am deadly pale
and uncontrollable now my tears flow
while to me life is just a long continual test
in which we all struggle to prevail.
[Reference: “Sonnet: “Eyes calm beside thee (Lady, could’st thou know!)” by Robert Browning.]
Gert Strydom, 8 january 2013
Its as if my country is on a different planet
It’s as if my country
is now somewhere on a different planet
and early in the morning I see the poor black man
where he sits with hair like strings
covered in a blanket
against the wall of the ABSA bank
where people at eight o’clock
stand in a very long queue
while they wait upon the bank to open
and the friendly police captain
(who sometimes wear plain clothes)
and has a shining bald head
greets me and he wants to know
where my motorcycle is?
There are a group of jobless white people
twisting tobacco from cigarette buts
where they beg for leftover food
at DJ’s restaurant
and I wonder what is happening to this country
while a minibus taxi
stops in the middle of the road
and drops people in the traffic
and the traffic light is green
when I cross to the shopping centre
and the minibus taxi ignores the red light
and barely misses me.
Gert Strydom, 21 september 2012
How do I tell you?
How do I tell you again and again
about how true my love is,
when continually I miss you when you are gone?
Sometimes love brings healing to pain
and these feelings I cannot stop
when even in sorrow they are present.
How do I tell you again and again
about how true my love is,
about how much I constantly yearn for you,
that our love brings a sparkle to each day
and is far stronger than any hindrance,
that there is more to love than just an oath?
How do I tell you again and again
about how true my love is?
Gert Strydom, 18 july 2012
Landmine
When the Buffel troop-carrier detonates a landmine
we see dark dots moving in the bush
and I break loose with the light machinegun
that the empty burning-hot caps hit against me
and as long as there is movement
on the other side of the dry riverbed
our fire is drawn
until everything is motionless.
With the smell of gunpowder hanging around us,
a skimpy goat-herdsman
crawls out from behind a giant ant hill
and cries about his dead goats.
Gert Strydom, 18 july 2012
A Phosphorus projectile explodes
A Phosphorus projectile explodes
burns soldiers to particles of dust
when an enemy tank fires
hitting a Ratel armoured car in a bright glare,
burns hissing right through the blood of boys,
it becomes a terrible hour
where humanity goes totally dim.
Gert Strydom, 17 july 2012
Like ants living clustered in (cavatina)
Like ants living clustered in, we do live
and are rushing
without noticing the red rising sun;
and everything
falls into place in our quickened pace
and each feeling,
action, glance is set in a quick-fix day
where we do loose the ability to pray,
with significant others instead of
husbands and wives,
where our children do not have to obey,
living their lives
totally Godless as they reach for more
and are in strive
with the laws and the ways of society
as everything centres just on I and me.
Gert Strydom, 17 july 2012
Progress
Dress your legs with nylons
with cat eyes in between
glowing next to huge pylons
never serene, just weirdly obscene
and destroy every patch of green
with shopping malls and every chain store
disrupting how towns and cities had been
and plant power stations by the score
and be a age totally foul
with scores of minibus taxi’s asunder
acting as if without a soul
to kill and to plunder
with the monsters bellowing
smoke like gallows, energizing electrical strings.
Gert Strydom, 16 january 2013
A kind of freedom
Here I want to thank the black government
for their type of freedom that circles out wider,
from a job I have been affirmed and are free from it
and it is not very long
that I am again aware about this freedom thing,
when black robbers drive around in both my cars.
Before I can wipe out my eyes the police visit me
while they wander around in my house
without a invitation, or even a warrant
where they set me free of my pellet guns,
my stainless steel Colt .45 signature model pistol
and ELG shotgun without laying a charge.
I have to deal with freedom again
when black people cheer in the street
about the soccer world cup,
jumping up and down everywhere around me
while they sing, they assure me of freedom,
but my cellular phone disappears
and the felon that has it is also very happy.
At home a stranger rushes upon me
while he points a firearm at my head
to rob me from my possessions,
to set me free from my property
and probably spits AIDS into my face,
says he was promised a land of milk and honey
and if you think that here I am only joking
you do not get the real meaning of this poem,
as these things did really happen
and still I am facing this kind of freedom.
Gert Strydom, 16 january 2013
Just beyond Gordon’s Bay
Just beyond Gordon’s Bay
where arum-lilies bloom
I had dropped her,
and look with wonder for a moment at nature
but she walked back into my arms again.
Gert Strydom, 25 september 2012
There is a kind of love (Persian / Rubiyat quatrain)
There is a kind of love and loving,
that is a very strange kind of thing
that even with separation and death
still keeps living and existing.
Gert Strydom, 31 october 2012
She was white blonde
She was white blonde,
her eyes sometimes bright sky-blue,
she was white blonde,
with a foot right next to the abyss
when I held her tightly against me,
and for the first time really noticed her well,
she was white blonde…
Gert Strydom, 16 january 2013
Daybreak
When he wakes up at first light
without a movement he looks at her
in her peaceful sleep
where she is right against him
but away in thoughts and existence.
He is much too scared to move,
scared that she might awake
before the right time
and then suddenly she opens her eyes
and he fills her gaze,
as she draws him to the heat of her body.
Gert Strydom, 25 september 2012
It’s as if your breath whispers declarations of love
It’s as if your breath whispers declarations of love
and next me you lie naked and stretched out,
while you bring warmth to the cold darkness
and when I listen to your breathing
I notice your back, arm and slender neck.
It’s as if your breath whispers declarations of love
and my certainty about us, about you becomes a fact,
when your breathing continually covers me like kisses
while you bring warmth to the cold darkness
and at a time my life was shackled in,
when days moved quickly through the calendar.
It’s as if your breath whispers declarations of love
as if at times I listen to the secrets of the night
until the sun licks over the distant hillocks
while you bring warmth to the cold darkness
and although at times in life I loose my way
nothing can violate the love between us.
It’s as if your breath whispers declarations of love
while you bring warmth to the cold darkness.
Gert Strydom, 24 december 2012
This is how Christmas is
With cupped hands I see him standing at a traffic light
and around him lines of cars drive past,
while people go on with their own lives
and some drive faster,
others cut in before others
and in silence he stands there without a single word.
At a shop window he sometimes stand with wide eyes,
where new clothes, very expense toys
are almost touchable near to him
and he does wish on this Christmas
to get something special
and his clothes are in tatters,
his black skin almost grey from hunger,
impatient cars continually blow on their horns
and he dreams about a large and pretty house
where the most delicious smells linger in the kitchen
and sometimes people look at him with pity,
while he longs for a very special kind of place
where a lost son is always welcome,
where God Himself stand welcoming with arms open wide,
where you can smell the fragrance of roasted lamb
and nobody does experience grief, are hunger or cold.
An old lady sincerely takes pity on him,
pushes a hot loaf of bread and a bottle of milk in his hands,
while others avoid him
and he does miss his father and mother who are both dead,
thinks this is how Christmas is
and suddenly his teeth glitter in a smile.
Gert Strydom, 24 december 2012
Christmas Eve (cavatina)
With flaming torches the carollers came,
their songs of joy
of Jesus born in Bethlehem brought magic;
their small convoy
quickly drive away to their big houses
to there enjoy
their own Christmas Eve, to celebrate,
to together feel somewhat good and great.
Gert Strydom, 2 august 2012
Migrant birds
Suddenly out of the blue
they came together and flopped down,
children wanted to shoot some with catapults
when wildly they flapped wings among each other,
were walking up and down with twittering sounds,
were standing around in parks for breadcrumbs,
were walking around on sidewalks like pedestrians
until the church bells did ring of three o’clock,
and they flew up in a wide curve
taking to flight into a born-in direction.
Gert Strydom, 6 december 2012
Daybreak
Becoming wide awake at the first light
he lies motionless, watches her
in her tranquil sleep,
where she is right there,
but somewhere away from him.
He is far too scared to move,
scared to wake her up
before the set time
and then suddenly her eyes open,
she watches him,
draws him close to the heat of her body.
Gert Strydom, 24 august 2012
Outside the snow is falling
Outside the snow is falling,
are gliding like pieces of paper coming down,
the icy wind is biting
when I brush off some flakes
and now it falls continually
when you phone, quite amused,
with the signal sometimes growing faint
while you say that you desire me.
Gert Strydom, 5 december 2012
Age had killed the child
Age had killed the child,
but I the adult was uncorrupted,
somewhere I had lost something pure,
while the child was killed slowly;
rebellion I could inherit from the child.
Gert Strydom, 26 november 2012
Arrival
With a tingle that rushes in my blood
you run up to me with a great smile
when I arrive from the aeroplane
and again I am astonished by your beauty
when a crowd of people move around us
and we embrace and are lost in each other.
Moments stretch out almost eternally
when we disrupt the movement of other passengers,
when pairs of eyes stare deeply into each others
as if we see each other for the first time,
when time keeps lingers as if it does not exist
and we embrace and are lost in each other.
Gert Strydom, 26 november 2012
Let us love nobly (Stave stanza sestets)
May we learn to love as deep and as true,
that not a thing can remove me from you
that all our words and actions only prove
that we both do truly know how to love,
when in old age we are, our days do pass,
in our love, everything might be as it was.
May we love each other with no decay,
that each tomorrow be better than today
and when all of life has run its own course,
in death there will be sleep and no divorce
and when we stand before our God at last
in our love, everything might be as it was.
Gert Strydom, 14 august 2012
I have loved you (Strambotto Romagnuolo)
I have loved you during each summer’s day,
though age now comes with years far too suddenly
nothing existing can take our feelings away;
in the times of hardship you have been friendly,
have brought light and brightness to every shade,
your beauty comes from the heart and will not fade
its great power springs from love that does not decay;
in winter your smile is like a summer’s day
Gert Strydom, 19 november 2012
When you came nearer
When you came nearer some birds flew up
while the sun glittered on you dark hair
and at that moment I did not say a word
while small devils danced in your eyes
and the whole world around us was vague
while something deep was hidden in your dark eyes
and your presence brought great joy to me.
Gert Strydom, 20 november 2012
Meeting
For a moment your hand rests cool in mine,
when you wish me a happy new year,
when our eyes meet deep, when you introduce yourself
and I know that you are extremely lovely,
for moments this contact lingers with me
while the pace of my heart quickens,
the contact becomes something intimate and intense,
a place away from a world of pain.
Latest comments:
22 may 2024
sam53
zmieniłem :)
22 may 2024
violetta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gagrjoOJBA
22 may 2024
Yaro
czujemy się oszukani , okłamani karmieni kłamstwem
21 may 2024
piórko
Ostatnia zwrotka szczególna "W dłoni piasek
21 may 2024
Ludzie cobie upodobali :)
21 may 2024
Wojna już trwa:)
21 may 2024
Śliczna jest:)
21 may 2024
Ja futro :)
21 may 2024
Ja tutaj zapomniałam o was, cieszę się za
20 may 2024
Jaga
Na szczęście życie zmiennym jest...
20 may 2024
Dziękuję za plusy i komentarze :)
20 may 2024
można je mieć każdego dnia :)
24 may 2024
Satish Verma
23 may 2024
wiesiek
23 may 2024
Satish Verma
22 may 2024
wiesiek
22 may 2024
Jaga
22 may 2024
Jaga
22 may 2024
Satish Verma
21 may 2024
Satish Verma
20 may 2024
Jaga
20 may 2024
Satish Verma