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Poetry

	Gert Strydom
	PROFILE About me Friends (13) Poetry (1888) Prose (37) Photography (5)

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Gert Strydom, 6 march 2013

A prayer for the earth (rondine)

Lord, I ask for a place of peace and love
where nothing sharp or deep divides us,
where again man learn in only you to trust
where nothing could our joy and fun remove,
where every day our world we do improve
where the needs of others becomes obvious,.
Lord, I ask

that always in integrity we will move
from lives that are slowly turning to dust
while slowly, very slowly we do adjust
before nothing of this world is left over,
Lord, I ask…

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Gert Strydom, 6 march 2013

Prayer

(after Ernst van Heerden)

Paint every single word
like Your flowers
that grows wild in the veldt,

let my poems sound
like the Messiah of Handel,
like angels singing about your glory,

translate my words,
so that others can see the world
through my eyes, can feel what I do experience,

safeguard me against criminals
that constantly sneaks around, against murderers
that destroys without a conscience

deliver me from a government which is set for only its own interests,
from creditors, door-to-door salesmen,
vagrants, friends who do not know me in the bitter years,

forgive me for the sin
that I commit knowing and unknowing,
for the way that I sometimes act with my fellow-men

and please do give me Your insight and Your light
which brings truth to darkness,
a circle of friends which goes wider and wider
let Your hand fold around me like a fortress.

[Reference: Bede (Prayer) by Ernst van Heerden.]

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Gert Strydom, 5 march 2013

That night

That night when the last rays
of the sun
were fading before the stars
He knew
that His own end
here on earth was drawing near,
that He have got to die
and again rise from the grave.
and it was no secret to Him

and when they came with burning torches
right up to Him,
when Peter draw his sword
He stretched out His own hand
in a gesture of peace,
attached the ear of Malchus
again to his head
and still those officials
wanted to nail the Lord God
onto a cross.

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Gert Strydom, 5 march 2013

Job

My name is Job and pain and suffering
should rather have been the meaning of it.
In the evenings I look up and search for meaning, even any kind,
and try to read the stars,

try to see Him from whom all things come
while I am still remaining in His service.
The festering wounds on my hands and feet break open
while in pain I walk along a dark road

and in a dream I see Him stretching out His hands to me,
hands on which painful scars are present.
Something breaks right through my thoughts
and when I awake above me the stars are glittering white,

in the moonlight the stars lie winking up to the horizon
but it’s as if a light falls down upon me
from the heavens,
as if in an embrace He draws me tightly against His chest.

Still I keep on trusting Him,
and continue to keep Him as the light that I strive after,
as the light of my life
and one morning when I awake all of cares suddenly disappear:

I see that my wife is pregnant when she walks up to me,
my friends bring me presents and flocks of live-stock,
I am cured overnight, with princes waiting to consult me
and then I become really prosperous.

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Gert Strydom, 5 march 2013

Martha

She really knew Him well,
but not as well as she could have
and was all the time busy preparing

getting things ready
and listening here and there,
but not really finding the time
to listen and to talk as deep

as she needed to
and when He was gone,
she had done her best
to be of service to Him,
but He wasn’t any more there
to share His knowledge
and she really missed Him
the blessings
of His presence and love.

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Gert Strydom, 4 march 2013

Reconnoitre expeditions (in answer to Johan Myburg)

The time for reconnoitre expeditions
to icy remote places, to the highest peaks
and the to the depths of the primeval forests
are archaic and past.

The time for reconnoitre expeditions
to neighbouring countries
where military fighting was present
are seen by some
as vague legends and vague victories

where every moment could hold death
but any facts about those discovery expeditions,
reconnoitre of the inhospitable wilderness,
discovery of battle tanks, armoured cars,
helicopters that buzzed along like beetles
and the military action that followed
are avoided in this time of peace

and all that remains
is to climb to the peaks of the wind
with a oxygen mask;
to jump from very high
into the blue space
or with similar breathing apparatus
to explore and discover
the depths of the ocean.

[Verwysing: Ekspedisie (Reconnoitre expedition) by Johan Myburg.]

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Gert Strydom, 4 march 2013

Obliteration

(after Ernst van Heerden)

Somewhere in the bushes
we camped on that cold winter night
and later in the darkness
the cold icily penetrated our bones;

on military patrol we had to know better
but to break the cold
we lighted a small fire
while men at first lay ready with their rifles

and we knew that the fire pointed out
our presence and our position to the enemy
but after days without any enemy contact
and being tired of the ration packs

a fire was made
where the wood hissed and crackled
and a snake came burning out of its hole
as that hell burned

along with worms, insects and beetles
and when we dragged another log nearer
worms and ants curled in the powder ash
as they went into that blazing fire

and we looked at this scene
with hands stretched out
over the comfortable heat
when an enemy rocket grenade

buzzed nearer and drew a bright red arc,
exploding in a hellish glare
and it destroyed almost everything
to bits of sand and dust.

[Reference: Uitwissing (Obliteration) by Ernst van Heerden.]

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Gert Strydom, 4 march 2013

There is something closing in this winter

(after Ernst van Heerden)

There is something closing in this winter
that suddenly appears
something sad, merciless, something not earned
which in each fallen leave, dead flower

carries death as if everything living
in a way is now handed over
as if customs, hope, convictions
are shredded in the coming darkness.

There are thunderbolts descending
and drawing blue-white lines
as if the Godly voice once again attempts
to awake everything

while any kind of sheltering
is swept away by the one natural disaster after the other
and man’s technological wonders are in vain
while the planet is busy changing

and manmade destruction is spreading throughout nature;
radioactive radiation, pollution and earthly heating
has a impact on everything that lives and animals and man begins to suffer
while extinction circles out wider and wider.

[Reference: Droë somer (Dry summer) by Ernst van Heerden.]

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Gert Strydom, 1 march 2013

Everything else did cease (Berryian Poem)

In the sheer darkness, of a moonless night
in each other, we blended did not bother
to switch on, to find any source of light
our sighs, our moans we did not smother
all of our thoughts, our deeds were focused on delight.

Our love, our existence had a kind of blurring design
as if every strive, all the things that we held to life
in as single moment, we could find and refine
as if every passion, every kind of drive
were no longer separate, no longer only yours and mine.

We were living out, our endless dreams
love we did portray, in everything we did say
life was somehow not, as it usually seems
while we did kiss, romance and play
with our fantasies, moans and happy screams

while we searched, yearned for quick release
in a sheer moment, acted and did pretend
were searching happiness, some kind of peace
a kind of tranquility, serenity without an end
as if caught in each other, everything else did cease.

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Gert Strydom, 1 march 2013

At home you are already asleep

At home you are already asleep,
are curled onto your side,
with your hair spread out like a sheaf
and outside the branches flutter in the breeze

while the odours of rosemary, lavender and gardenia
softly penetrates the room
and when I get into bed to find my resting place
you look for lingering moments at me

with eyes that gleam like those of a cat
and you claim a song
that tells about my love and longing
and bodily urges awake between us.

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Other poems: For now and for always, The temptation of being near to her, Your walking away is measured in watt, In the garden (ABECEDARIUM), Just for a moment it is there, There are people, Unknowing we may be living in a war zone, Holiday, I yearn for the secrets of nature (sonnet), At 52 the nuts of my country are stripped, A strange dream (triolet), The beach, the morning, Where star systems do disappear in the nought (sonnet), Come to my flower garden, Warriors of the civil service, This morning the sky glitters blue, You must not show any fear, My dear loving God, Sad tidings, Morning, Mirror image, The sun hangs orange red, Divorce V, Divorce IV (Espinela), Divorce III, Divorce II (cavatina), Divorce, Respite, At times we are only set on passing (American sonnet), The peach tree, The gardener, The old guitar (cavatina), Dear Lord God, Still life, Two sides to everything (cavatina), I have missed my country, The sardine run, He lies stretched out in the sun, Africa, There’s no other country, When death’s fingers do me touch, I wonder where is an untouched place that firmly does stand, You never came, I am afraid, The silent countdown, Without matter, Dare you character?, Once I wrote a kind of happy song (Orléans rondel prime), There is no other saviour, Alone we come into the world (for my mom on mother’s day), With hunger in your eyes, Please do forgive, Hoba West Meteor, When I do consider how my time is spent, I see him doing carpentry, When the two of us met, John Phillip, On Pretoria (Italian sonnet), Return, Cecil John Rhodes (Italian sonnet) (in answer to Rudyard Kipling), Afterwards, I walk in the veldt near to Majuba hillock, Vain are the words and deeds that are mine (Rubiyat sonnet), When I do find no place of peace (sonnet), Why I remember the Anglo-Boer war (John Dee sonnet), Lord, only in Your footsteps (Persian / Rubiyat quatrain), On a night, Far too quickly time rushes on (Persian /Rubiyat quatrain), Like any other person, She lives beautiful (sonnet), Where this world is but a grain of sand, On the day of my birth, The crucifixion of the Son of God, Today my heart is full of joy, A prayer (Sonnet), On my birthday, My heart has gone quite in me (Persian / Rubiyat quatrain), Come to me, Soldier: yesterday, At this place I have been before (sonnet), There had been a kind of loneliness, When the early the morning does begin (cavatina), Constantly I am astonished, When I hold you tight, Life is a gift, Bus trip at night, I have not seen the spark of life, Kamikaze, Lucifer at sunrise, The things in a town, When from me she is out of sight, How chilly like winter, Some times, I love you, Long Beach, As my eyes gaze into the dark night, I see her dancing gaily, Right against the morass, African September, A room in the past, The secret room, It had been a hell of spring with the sun hanging scorching, The marsh, For my darling, with New Year, The old year, Today people are not interested, South Africa is also my country, In this distant country, What fanciful lives we lead, As if they are beacons, You are my darling (sonnet), On Christmas, Last night I dreamt of you, Where are we now?, I had dreamt of you, At night the mind plays its tricks, Inside you and I dance, One Military Hospital, Something about a bird in a tree, While the year hangs skeleton, I gave my love to you, No other painting, Field of maize, The red arum lilies, Would my words, When the front door, At dusk, Child, Cry, Maybe 4, Maybe 3, Maybe 2, To be us, Photocopy machine, I do love Africa, While everything is turning brown outside, The crumbling man, My small Jack Russell dog, With self contempt I stand in the veldt, The fallen Cuban soldier, There is a time when night sneaks in, After the farm invasions in Zimbabwe, The small redbreast sings and dances, I love you, Walls, A child is a strange thing, Baby lies so fast asleep, It is a pitch-dark night, Hecuba, A pastor,

Latest items:

Poetry

A prayer for the earth (rondine)

Prayer

That night

Job

Martha

Reconnoitre expeditions (in answer to Johan Myburg)

Obliteration

There is something closing in this winter

Everything else did cease (Berryian Poem)

At home you are already asleep

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