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Poetry

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

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Gert Strydom, 29 march 2012

Lord, never might I truly understand (cavatina)

Lord, never might I truly understand,
that God and man
You are both, but Your divine selfless love
does widely span
through all my thoughts, through all what I do see,
Your Godly plan
brings to my greatest iniquities grace
and I long to see Your loving kind face.

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Gert Strydom, 29 march 2012

Still in my life You do enter in (cavatina)

At times the thought that You know me too well
does unnerve me
as I do not constantly think about
love, charity;
the good and great things does at times elude
my thoughts, frankly
I am at times full of the vilest sin
and still in my life You do enter in.

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Gert Strydom, 29 march 2012

Your own hands I get my daily bread (cavatina)

From Your own hands I get my daily bread,
You know my heart,
above living and dead You are supreme;
You know each part
which makes me and You know everything;
in my own art
You are present, even in each dispute;
You make me great, grand, good and resolute.

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Gert Strydom, 28 march 2012

If there is something more (wreathed quatrains) (in answer to Edgar Allan Poe)

If all we are, see or may deem to be
is free like drops of sand on the beach
and in each there is no constancy
in fancy for something more we reach,

what we teach are trifle roles that are set
even if we have met, we are just on a stage
where we wage just on chance a mere bet,
where what we get, destiny gives with rage

in every age we are just actors in a dream,
like a stream where happiness is swept away
and every day nothing is as it seem
even if we deem, nothing is set to stay;

be that as it may, we know how life is,
we enjoy a kiss and passionate feelings
we are healing in happy human bliss,
more than this we are not away reeling;

even in the sting of life we are safe,
even in if grave situations does insist,
we do persist against the decimating wave,
oblivion’s rave, we do in God’s hand exist.

[Reference: “A dream within a dream” by Edgar Allan Poe.]

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Gert Strydom, 28 march 2012

Thinking of your work and life (cavatina sequence)

Thinking of your work and life, a yearning
to earn much more;
where now I do lack all kinds of good things,
where you deplore
me for my lack to breed, build and to become
great as before;
still I have a good sense of confidence
while my words are reaching for excellence.

Yet with similar conviction I am
still reaching out
to a world that is beyond all human sight,
loud you may shout
and act in word and deed very harshly
and bring about
great acts of violence and great strife
while unseen forces of darkness wreck my life;

but hours and days of utter loneliness
wreaks their havoc
and forever ticking and running on
is the old clock;
wealth and snobbism enfolds you like a cloak;
running amok
are the words and deeds of my enemies
while constantly I only long for peace.

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Gert Strydom, 28 march 2012

My friends have left me

(after John Clare)

My friends have left me,
they do know me not
and at times I am struggling with my sanity
but there are still some words that I have got

while the sense of nothingness
envelops all of my world
and to everything I have a strange aloofness
while I am trying to hold

onto some kind of meaning
as my life under the whip of destiny bends
but it’s at the edge of disaster that I am leaning
and it feels as if everything somehow ends

while instinctively I know
over the edge at a time I have got to go

[References: “I am – yet what I am none cares or knows” by John Clare.]

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Gert Strydom, 28 march 2012

Early I viewed the morning’s new birth (cavatina)

Early I viewed the morning’s new birth,
the eastern sky
was aflame while I walked on a path
that wounded by
a small copse, some hillocks and a field,
up birds did fly,
pheasants and guinea-fowl screeched protest
while in nature I was extremely blest.

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Gert Strydom, 28 march 2012

Sandpiper (cavatina)

(after Elizabeth Bishop)

The leaping spray that roar, the swishing fling
of surf and sand,
plays in and out as waves rush to and thro;
where it does stand
while searching for something on tiny legs;
it understands
the roaring toss, a world of surf and foam,
while rushing on the wet beach it does roam.

[Reference: “Sandpiper” by Elizabeth Bishop.]

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Gert Strydom, 26 march 2012

Far too little we know (Enclosed Triplets) (in answer to John Keats)

I

Not all kinds of things can be explained
by mere science or by some philosophy
and so the essence of life has remained

without its knowledge ever been gained
a very great kind of strange mystery
in that it does exist unrestrained,

when couples from pleasure have not abstained,
as in love some small cells brings a child to be
while after death life cannot be maintained

or knowledge of its wellspring be retained
while its source seems divine, something Godly;
not all kinds of things can be explained.

II

While some mysteries still has a haven
in their own undisturbed happenings
while human science still measures uneven;

if texture, colour and waves in heaven
of a rainbow is in the knowledge of things
the impact, the magic of it is not given,

even when men are despotic or craven,
on faith like butterflies, angels have wings,
as does remain the lore of the raven,

even the devil has hoofs that are cloven,
some stories have got some imaginings
while some mysteries still has a haven.

III

People might think I am on the loony side
but not all discoveries have been made
and to real faith some powers remain wide,

a man may have a tender hearted bride
as true love’s mysteries do not just fade
while all their guests do them well wishes bide,

when hidden facts appear from where they hide,
new kinds of things may appear from the shade,
with knowledge man wants to rule and divide,

in life by limited resources we decide
the way of things and do others persuade
and to real faith some powers remain wide.

IV

Yet still far too little we do know
even of ourselves and of our earth,
about the way that everything does go,

we experience the sun’s early glow
while we learn and adapt from our very birth
are caught by the wonder of drops of snow,

yearn for something more beyond the shadow,
for a Supreme Being that knows our true worth
in life’s daily continuous ebb and flow

and in rebellion we suffer blow by blow,
while to existence there is no rebirth,
yet still far too little we do know.

[Reference: “Lamia” by John Keats.]

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Gert Strydom, 26 march 2012

Le morte d’Arthur (cavatina sequence)

(after Sir Thomas Mallory)

With his breastplate shattered he limped
among the dead,
all of his heroic friends were now gone,
around him spread
lay good, great, honest men, the very best,
and up ahead
swords clattered, the sun shone as always,
but he only saw its fading dying rays,

yet to some men King Arthur is not dead
and rise he will
by the great power of Jesus they say,
Arthur lives still
in their hearts as the once and future king
to from great ill
rid the world, I will only further say
that Arthur was a great man in his day.

[References: “Le morte d’Arthur” by Sir Thomas Mallory. “But many men say there is written upon his tomb this verse: HIC IACET ARTHURUS, REX QUONDUM REXQUE FUTURUS “Here lies Arthur, the once and future king.”” From “Le morte d’Arthur” by Sir Thomas Mallory.]