Poetry

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

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Gert Strydom, 6 july 2012

School

Continually its progressions and rows,
the teacher is on patrol,
his cane sometimes swishes painfully,
there are theorems and more theorems
which are driving us nuts
with differentiation and other calculations,
and we are taught about Ballot and Christaller
and models are all around me,
one after the other they do pass
while there’s no end to examination papers
and the girls are lovely
but continually I am caned
and this is why I find high school
somewhat bewitching.

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Gert Strydom, 5 july 2012

Karate

Two people dressed in white
take steps around each other,
and around their middles
black bands are tied.

Like lightning bolts feet shoot out
are averted fast as thunder,
a fist is folded deadly
and held in a striking blow.

Shapes move like spectres in a dangerous dance,
eagles get wings with speed and course
and four eyes measures courage, measures speed,
measures soul, body and craft.

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Gert Strydom, 5 july 2012

The gymnast

His attitude is set to high precision
where he swings
making the correct grasps lightning quick,
and sometimes just for moments touches the rings,
hurling through the air he turns
in movements that really does count.

He tumbles quickly from the balancing beam,
he is supremely accurate on the pommel horse
where he retains absolute balance
and moves perfectly
from place to place,
later he returns to parallel bars
before landing without movement on the floor.

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Gert Strydom, 5 july 2012

Ice-skating

They are one with the music,
the muscled man and slim woman
and every movement is smooth
in a combination of grace and power
as if they are doing a ballet piece on ice,
they move rhythmical as masters of balance,
become part of the story that they portray
and when they come to a halt
the crowd come to their feet to applaud.

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Gert Strydom, 4 july 2012

An ibis screeched outside in the garden

An ibis screeched outside
in the garden
suddenly slapped its big bronze-brown wings
and touched
by the frenzy you turned around,
without a word
pulled me deep into your arms,
suddenly you covered my face with kisses.

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Gert Strydom, 4 july 2012

Gently the sun oozes

Gently the sun oozes through the big old tree
where we both linger for moments in the shade,
around us the garden is bright like a painting,
blades of grass are knee high in the veldt
across the road where plovers are calling each other
and glowing white the moon hangs in the blue sky;
it’s as if I am dreaming as you do really love me
and unexpectedly you squeeze my hand and I get a kiss.

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Gert Strydom, 4 july 2012

The thrush sings its twittering song

The thrush sings its twittering song, picks up worms,
the Jack Russell snatches wild at the bees,
startled they try to escape,
the sunbird gambols from flower to flower
while we are at the washing line
where I catch you in my arms,
as the sun laughs white hot at us
from the blue sky
on this glorious day
and I wonder if another like this will come.

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Gert Strydom, 3 july 2012

Broken

Sometimes I wonder why
I constantly feel in disorder
in Your presence
as if I am still becoming

and maybe it’s because You are totally perfect,
that love that is so self sacrificing
is almost not understandable.

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Gert Strydom, 3 july 2012

While I am still far over the hill

When life takes me
over ghastly paths with a precipice
I want to stray into the darkness

but still your heaven is stretched out blue over me,
with the sun burning intense warm white
and I look at the moon where it’s high,
or low in a variety of
yellow, white and even silver colours

and when the wind rises cruelly to devour me
You are always there with arms wide open,
like a father coming to the rescue,
who is already running
while I am still far over the hill.

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Gert Strydom, 2 july 2012

While Johnny and his section is on patrol

An artist paints a bushy landscape,
paints colours of a setting sun
with fleecy clouds hanging in the blue sky
while Johnny and his section is on patrol.
The canvass has a river where shots rang out,
an angry crocodile that tries to catch him,
black coots fly up and Johnny feels afraid,
when a trooper detonates a landmine,

three riflemen cover his position,
the enemy shoot with tracer bullets that draw lines,

they are caught unexpectedly by Johnny’s return fire,
and flee from the very start of the fire-fight
with a wounded comrade that longs for God,
Johnny’s men are brave and capable,
a soldier is shot to smithereens, lies droopy like a doll,
some distance away a hissing snake slithers,
to vomit is an unstoppable urge;
down at the marsh a long-tailed widow-bird flies.

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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

School

Karate

The gymnast

Ice-skating

An ibis screeched outside in the garden

Gently the sun oozes

The thrush sings its twittering song

Broken

While I am still far over the hill

While Johnny and his section is on patrol

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