Gert Strydom

Gert Strydom, 3 july 2014

At dusk when the weavers rollicked in the back yard

At dusk when the weavers frolicked in the back yard
and were picking at small crumbs and seeds
some were yellow and others red
and I did imagine
that again as a child
I was playing at the march
 
but the darkness of the night came quickly
and suddenly the back yard was empty
with the fireplace of the neighbour
blowing a cloud of coal smoke into the air.


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Gert Strydom

Gert Strydom, 3 july 2014

Your mouth did open softly under mine

Your mouth did open softly under mine
where you stood close to me,
the crickets sang a song
where we were watching the stars
and I did wonder if other people
were also just like this caught in a moment
and around us there was the darkness of the night.


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Gert Strydom

Gert Strydom, 3 july 2014

My Lord, I do not anymore ask the things of a child

My Lord, I do not anymore ask the things of a child,
not even to find prosperity
but that you keep my whole family
tightly against your chest.


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Gert Strydom

Gert Strydom, 1 july 2014

Even when my body is broken and I am in pain

Even when my body is broken and I am in pain
and when it feels as if all hope is in vain,
when around me it seems as the eternal night
then God’s love do my still sustain
to reach out to the new tomorrow,
to a future that shines with new light,
to a place without any sorrow,
like a small seedling sprouting after the rain.


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Gert Strydom

Gert Strydom, 1 july 2014

Like the sun glowing on the smooth surface of the sea

Like the sun glowing on the smooth surface of the sea
words of love do touch the heart,
changes face after face to be merry
when frowns want to start
and although the ever surging turmoil of the mind
wants to break free
with the tide and wind of worry,
words carry much more power than we know
and do constantly with deeper meaning glow.


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Gert Strydom

Gert Strydom, 1 july 2014

Nursery school / toddler verses

In the evenings I am sometimes afraid
 
In the evenings I am sometimes scared
and also for a spider and a snake
but when God is with me
then there is nothing that can catch me
 
and the leopard hanging over the cupboard
is just a blanket in the light of the room
and when at night I lay longing
and even when I feel like shaking
 
I know that a angel
with a flaming sword stands at my side,
that nothing can pass him
and after each evening’s pray
I lay peacefully in my bed.
 
*
 
 
Some children
 
Some children are strong
and others are clever
but you my child are wonderful
and is someone special to me.
 
Some parents brag with their jobs
and others climb out of the most beautiful cars
but I know that God does just borrow everything
to each one of us.
 
*
 
 
I hear the rain falling outside
 
I hear the falling rain patter
against the windows
and smell the odour rising from the dust
while the drops are thudding down
 
and when I see a lightning-bolt
it is burnt into my inner eye
and I know that I serve a God
with mighty things in His hand
 
and wonder from where the colours come
when the storm clouds disappear
and a rainbow appears suddenly?
Are those colours also from Him?
 
*
 
 
This morning I am ill with a cold
 
This morning I am ill with a cold
en and its the marriage of Jackal and wolf
because the sun is shining while the rain is falling
and blue-white thunders resound one after the other
and I see the rain shining in dashes
and wonder what God is thinking about this scene?
 
*
 
 
Sometimes I hear our cat purr
 
Sometimes I hear our cat purr,
how the dog thuds down nearby
and wonder if a worldwide peace is about to start
when even dogs and cats
can love each other at times.
 
*
 
 
When mother came back from the hospital
 
When mother came back from the hospital
daddy had to pay a lot
and I wonder what it all did cost
to get and brother and sister from there
but then I heard from the minister
that every human being is priceless to God.
 
*
 
 
My baby brother
 
My baby brother
do not want to talk or laugh
or even sit or walk
and he is only crying and screaming
all of the time
where he is laying
and I wonder
what he wants?
And if God does know
what the matter is with him?
 
*
 
 
One evening something terrible happened
 
One evening something terrible happened
when as only a four year old child
a schoolteacher had torn the curtains away
where I was laying on my bed.
 
He was writing on the wall
and told me to read
while he was glaring at me
and full of fear
 
I looked at the cane in his hand
that was coming down on my small cars
causing them to scatter away
and suddenly I was totally dumbstruck
 
but when I opened my eyes
my mother was at my side:
“Wakeup my child,
we have got to get you ready
for your first day at the nursery school.”
 
*
 
 
When the chameleon saw a fly
 
When the chameleon saw a fly
he attentively watched him
where camouflaged chameleon
was clinging to his branch
 
and suddenly his tongue did shoot out
and to where the fly did disappear
you can guess.
 
*
 
 
I am totally astounded
 
I am totally astounded
about the things that are sprouting
from the ground,
over every pretty little bean
and every beautiful flower
 
and I wonder how everything
did come to life,
if God did make
the flowers and plants so wonderful?
 
*
 
 
This morning a chicken egg did break open
 
This morning a chicken egg did break open
and a small chicken did put its head out of the shell
and I was astonished
to see it coming out chirping
and when I did learn that chickens do lay eggs
nobody could tell me
which of the chicken or the egg
originally did come first
but I know that people
do forget that God is the creator.
 
*
 
 
Stormy weather
 
I thought that only fire come out the of the mouths of dragons
but when somebody told me that a dragon lives in the clouds
I was totally astonished
and I wonder if he maybe was mistaken
as there is an electric spark
that jumps from the clouds
and no dragon or a strange thing.
 
*
 
 
Hail
 
One morning white hard wet corns dropped upon me
while the thunder was flashing in the distance
and I wonder if the hail canon of a giant
goes off there high up in the sky
when those corns did hit me
and was falling everywhere around
 
but my dad did tell me later
that rain and hail are stored away in God’s treasure trove
and that they bring growing power to the earth.
 
*
 
 
The mole
 
I see an animal that looks cosily
peeping out of a mole hole
and when it disappears under the ground
I wonder to where it’s sneaking
 
but grandpa says that moles do avoid
ground that are mixed with dung
and that he gets no trouble with the moles
and I wonder what the moles are doing
deep down in their tunnels?
 
*
 
 
The falcon
 
There is a dot turning high up in the sky
and I wonder if it’s maybe a crow
while carefully I am watching
the thing high up in the blue
and when a falcon comes down as quick as lightning
I hear the chickens screaming anxiously
and some do fall upside down
and the dogs try to tear the bird out of the air
where it’s hanging for just another moment.
 
*
 
Mosquitoes
 
It’s a strange feeling
when a swarm of mosquitoes
like a squadron of stuka bombers
turn circling above your head
and it then feels as if a war has been declared
when you try to slap them but miss,
when you want to kill all of them
before they come landing
and make a target of you
and you are chasing them with hands clapping.
 
My mother says that a person can push them dead
but I find it difficult when they speed away
and their buzzing shrilly are cursing me
while I am chasing them up an down
and almost dare my own life to destroy them
and try and slap them into the naught
with thundering slap upon thundering slap
and if you want to spray the simple things with poison
you may poison yourself
by breathing the poison in
 
and then there is the fact
that as any other thing in nature
the mosquitoes are necessary
for the survival
of an organism or a fish.
 
*
 
When I go to grandma
 
(for Suné Strydom)
 
When I go to grandma
there is always something that she gives to me
and I turn her around my little finger
while I ride on her back as if she is a horse,
as grandma loves me dearly.
 
My grandma is becoming very old,
does tell me about the loving Lord Jesus,
sometimes hits me on my buttocks
while I am trying to stop her with my hands
and that mischief I will never try again!


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Gert Strydom

Gert Strydom, 1 july 2014

When the windows of your soul are closed with tiredness

When the windows of your soul are closed with tiredness,
when you turn, to lie spooned against me,
am I then out of all of your thoughts
or do you want me to cuddle me in your dreams?
When I feel your breath softly against my cheek,
are we then still walking together in your paradise
or are your sleep closed, just meant for you
or do you want to show me the most beautiful flowers
or is there a wall that rises when you are asleep?


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Gert Strydom

Gert Strydom, 1 july 2014

You talk about flowers in Adderley Street

(in answer to I.D. du Plessis)
 
You talk about flowers in Adderley Street
but my eye catches the sugar bushes and aloes against the ridge
and the rough rocks are covered with wild plums,
porkwood and medlar trees
and I can smell the sugar-sweet fragrance of the flowers
that hangs on the evening breeze
 
and when the thunderstorm flame up behind the hillocks,
thunder flash upon thunder flash
is burnt into my inner eye
and I smell the odour of electric fire
and of the drops of rain
that pours down upon the red ground
 
and my friend,
here away from the turmoil of the big city
a man can still become humble
before the omnipotent Creator.
 
[Reference: “Blomme in Adderleystraat” (Flowers in Adderley street) by I.D. du Plessis.]


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Gert Strydom

Gert Strydom, 30 june 2014

It’s better to trust and to hope

It’s better to trust and to hope
than to fall into worry and despair
and it’s better to truly care,
to say and to do the right things
than just to leave things to be.


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Gert Strydom

Gert Strydom, 30 june 2014

Maybe far too long I have waited (sonnet)

Maybe far too long I have waited
for the time to come to meet you again,
to walk with you in the sieving winter rain,
to with you be elated
 
about small happy things,
to forget the heartache and pain
and with you in my arms to remain,
and together to live through happy tidings.
 
With us there is no end to love, it lingers
but maybe it’s just another act
on the stage of life,
that is trying to slip through my fingers
but through the years it tries
to remain intact
while nights and days dies


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  10 - 30 - 100  



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,

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