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Poetry

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

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Gert Strydom, 11 january 2012

I want to go back to the veldt again (Rondel Prime)

I want to go back to the veldt again
to watch nature to see little things,
to hear how pretty small red weavers sing,
to on my skin feel the summer’s cool rain

to live with harmony without some pain,
to get of God a clear understanding.
I want to go back to the veldt again
to watch nature to see little things,

and away from the city to remain,
to see flowers rise in the months of spring
opening and life slowly awakening,
I want to go back to the veldt again
to watch nature to see little things.

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Gert Strydom, 10 january 2012

An eternal kind of love (Enclosed Triplet)

While time far too quickly passes us by
in the presence of things pure and true
that between some beloved partners does lie,

sometimes the vast protecting sapphire sky
hangs covering over us, in it’s deep blue
hangs somewhat sheltering over you and I,

as there’s longing for something in each eye
of every great thing that we can pursue,
while continually time gets wings to fly

but somewhere a kind of essence does lie,
like something precious with a prefect hue,
as true love is the thing that does us tie

while in every thing for which we vie
you accompany me in all that we do
and somewhere is lost the me and the my

while own interests we do at times defy,
your graceful face remains my only retinue
until the very day that we do die,

even in all that we treat with some fie
we stick to each other like a kind of glue
while time far too quickly passes us by.

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Gert Strydom, 10 january 2012

Some silence hanged wordless between us

Next to a silver river, a clear stream
you were dreaming against a willow,
with a small smile, silent and satisfied
as if something great happened in the past
when your bright eyes suddenly caught mine,
words hang silently between us.

In your eyes light sparkled like stars,
a leave fell and glided away
when suddenly a plover called from the marsh
with others answering from far away
when your bright eyes suddenly caught mine,
words hang silently between us.

Where the water flows endlessly
you got quickly to your feet,
your glance went deep into my soul
and we could not evade our feelings,
when your bright eyes suddenly caught mine,
words hang silently between us.

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Gert Strydom, 10 january 2012

When you tell me how much you do love me (Collins Sestets)

How many days I saw your subtle grace
the lingering smile on your lovely face,
there is a kind of sweet innocence
but also charm and a confidence
and you bring an inner tranquillity
when you tell me how much you do love me.

Sometimes beautiful the day does begin
while loving you closely feels like a sin,
but our intense feelings we cannot ignore
while life changes from what it was before
and you bring an inner tranquillity
when you tell me how much you do love me.

The moment is eternal with each kiss
while we are caught in ecstasy, sheer bliss
and not the future or even times past
has significance while the feelings last
and you bring an inner tranquillity
when you tell me how much you do love me.

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Gert Strydom, 9 january 2012

Insertion (Enclosed Triplet)

With the bright moon that is tonight missing
as if it has suddenly strayed somewhere
the stars dimmed out, the air is rushing

while almost like a machine I am falling
from very high while breathing pure oxygen,
an exploding lightning bolt makes my ears sing

while the altimeter I am watching;
with each enemy guard, guard-tower primed
against penetration, in I am fluttering,

at terminal velocity it’s terrifying,
while life comes to a standstill around me
but that moment is but very fleeting

before a device is reminding
that the rushing ground is almost too near
and the jerking parachute is opening;

right after the equipment bag I am landing,
snatching off the chute, cocking the weapon,
with the bright moon that is tonight missing.

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Gert Strydom, 9 january 2012

A war story

There’s a story that have being told
(and I do not know if there is truth to it),
that after the slaughtering
of the 47th FAPLA / Cuban brigade at the intersection
of the Lomba and Cuzizi Rivers in Angola,

the mauling of several brigades on the way
to Cuito Cuanavale and the destruction
of that military airfield, the loss of many soldiers,
the destruction of nine Mig fighters
and the loss of huge amounts of Soviet equipment

Fidel Castro was very angry and in a terrible rage
brought his Cuban soldiers in Angola
up to fifty thousand, sent four hundred tanks
and his best pilots to Angola,
after the South African forces had withdrawn

which resulted in the Mig-23 attack
on the Calueque dam
in South West Africa (now Namibia),
where a Buffel troop carrier was lost
along with some South African soldiers.

According to the story in vengeance
a team of elite South African
Reconnaissance Commandos
was HALO dropped equipped with
the Fim-92 Stinger anti-aircraft systems

that UNITA had supplied to them,
along with some other weapons and equipment
that these special force soldiers do normally carry
to shoot down MIG-23’s
and Hind attack helicopters

that was putting UNITA under attack
and it has been told that they were dropped
near to an enemy airbase under the nose
of the large Russian aircraft that was scanning
the air for any approaching enemy activities

where they shot down
several fighter jets and attack helicopters,
but that the section-leader
left one pilot to fly off after seeing him
making a cross, begging God for mercy.

The Reconnaissance Commandos managed to withdraw,
were extracted at the allocated extraction point
without any further incident with either FAPLA
or any Cuban enemy units
but the story gets much more interesting.

It is told that while that Recce section-leader
was holidaying in the United States
he took a taxicab from the airport to his hotel,
where the driver (a former Cuban pilot) recognized him
and that he had left Cuba as a refugee.

[Reference: HALO is an acronym for High Altitude-Low Opening that is a form of free-fall (parachute) insertion.]

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Gert Strydom, 9 january 2012

Reconnaissance Commando night patrol (Novelinee)

Where enemy soldiers in tents do lie
in the darkness of night, the early hours
slowly, carefully we scout we sneak by,
pass fences, armed patrols, guard towers
and where they in bliss unaware sleep
during the midnight’s sombre icy chill
we reconnoitre, sabotage and peep
while they lie dreaming under wool and twill
we do apply our very special skills.

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Gert Strydom, 6 january 2012

What extraordinary circumstance brought me? (Enclosed Triplet)

What type of circumstance brought me
in my own birth
to a planet that is not of death free,

to a world that constantly is in decay
here to this earth
where but a single sun brightens the day;

I could have served at the feet of God,
in joy, in mirth;
where I now in destruction’s footsteps trod?

I ask these questions in true sincerity
when hope I girth,
what type of circumstance brought me?

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Gert Strydom, 6 january 2012

The Cassinga jump (Enclosed Triplet)

That night great strain was on each youthful face,
in the hangar we did equipment check,
called-up each from a different place.

The Hercules roared at a quick pace
as in many sticks we were strapped in,
with the flashing red light my heart did race;

to some an enemy jump is commonplace,
a paratrooper did vomit on me
and I begged God for His saving grace.

Suddenly I had to step into space,
I heard the roar of anti-aircraft guns,
snipers in trees was another menace

while I felt the wind’s jerking soft embrace,
as we got down in a wooded terrain,
saw some women of the fleeing populace,

but that was only the smallest preface
as rockets and bullets whooshed over us,
called-up each from a different place.

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Gert Strydom, 6 january 2012

Roses (Enclosed Triplet)

Some deep red roses bloomed in the rain,
the rain sieved down for days without end,
an end to winter brought the spring again;

while again roses at a time would be send,
be send as messengers of a love that’s true,
that’s true in all things that had happened.

I held red roses wrapped in a big bunch,
a big bunch to make up for being apart;
after days apart we did meet for lunch,

after lunch a sweet kiss would test her heart,
her heart would respond with some kind of bliss,
or bliss would be absent in our own art.

Nothing could love remove, her eyes did shine
as I saw her face, hurried to embrace;
the depths of love did prove that she was mine.

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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

I want to go back to the veldt again (Rondel Prime)

An eternal kind of love (Enclosed Triplet)

Some silence hanged wordless between us

When you tell me how much you do love me (Collins Sestets)

Insertion (Enclosed Triplet)

A war story

Reconnaissance Commando night patrol (Novelinee)

What extraordinary circumstance brought me? (Enclosed Triplet)

The Cassinga jump (Enclosed Triplet)

Roses (Enclosed Triplet)

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