Najnowsze prace:
Gert Strydom, 28 października 2014
Early on a winter morning in Cape Town
Early on a winter morning in Cape Town
the rain is sieving down as it has done for days,
the sky is covered with grey clouds
and inside are you and I
cosily in a hot bed.
There are footsteps in the hallway
that sneaks to the room and two cold children
get into the bed with us
and when the big old clock strikes seven o’clock
its time to get up, to get ready
for work and school.
Gert Strydom, 22 lutego 2013
If everything that I do dream
If everything that I do dream
blows away to be nothing
then life devours me
and against destiny I am half-blinded;
in my body, soul and spirit a man
but in my heart I stay a child
that still does hope and trust on Your salvation
while I do try to keep myself on the right way.
Gert Strydom, 10 czerwca 2013
Last night I could have sworn that I heard your name
Last night I could have sworn that I heard your name
in a song that the wind was singing
as past me in a cool breeze it came
and some of the branches of the trees were swinging
and it was as if it was softly whispering at times
of happy things, of other different climes
about the places where it had gone
and the wind blew on and on
and kept on blowing right into the new morn
Gert Strydom, 15 marca 2013
On the plain (kwansaba)
On the plain a old lion searches
the world with his eyes and nose
before it stretch with nails spread out,
roars with thunder echoing over the cliffs,
causing the gazelle to tear away wildly
asking younger lions to come and fight,
while some cubs drink from their mother.
Gert Strydom, 14 marca 2013
When the night sneaks near
When the night sneaks near
and suddenly comes almost unexpectedly
as if it’s a visitor
then you come and knock on my heart,
then you become the nearest star
when you steal the light from the moon
and it’s in your arms that I lay,
where I find my rest and peace
until the sunlight surprises us.
Gert Strydom, 14 marca 2013
I need you
I need you,
I need you to think of me,
and in the darkness
I want to see your big shining eyes,
I want to feel your heart beating in your chest,
I want to quench my thirst of you,
I want to hear the tinkle of your laughter,
I want to feel you when we lay spooned together
and I do need you
to love me without any restraint.
Gert Strydom, 5 marca 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.
Gert Strydom, 8 marca 2013
For a while the autumn sun hovered
For a while the autumn sun
hovered like a fire ball
in the night sky
and the last
of summer’s heat
was still here.
Like leaves on a huge tree
the stars appeared on by one
filling the night sky
and amber lights started to glow
in the street and the evening’s serenity
unfolded like a big blanket
spreading out with the night.
Crickets started to shriek
and frogs started croaking
and a bright yellow moon
lit up the sky
and this night
there is only you and I
and its wonderful to be together.
Gert Strydom, 30 maja 2013
On some South African Afrikaans published poets (Catena Rondo)
(after Roy Campbell)
They praise there own elitist workmanship
then write a poem over and over again
until only their tinkered out words remain,
they praise there own elitist workmanship
then write a poem over and over again,
struggle along for more than sixty times,
abandon all love and poetics that rhymes,
then write a poem over and over again
struggle along for more than sixty times,
they despise a poet whose words do flow
while they struggle to complete every row,
struggle along for more than sixty times
they despise a poet whose words do flow
says that he types faster than they can write
does not even know the very day from night;
they despise a poet whose words do flow
says that he types faster than they can write
while the very words of other poets they copy,
are sheltered, from the rest of humanity,
says that he types faster than they can write
while the very words of other poets they copy,
they are fishes swimming in the tiniest pond,
are scared of the great world lying beyond;
while the very words of other poets they copy
they are fishes swimming in the tiniest pond,
their work is without any kind of profundity
and sometimes on them I have a kind of pity,
they are fishes swimming in the tiniest pond,
their work is without any kind of profundity,
they praise there own elitist workmanship,
they want others them as gods to worship,
their work is without any kind of profundity,
they praise there own elitist workmanship
then write a poem over and over again
until only their tinkered out words remain,
they praise there own elitist workmanship.
[References: “On some South African novelists” and “On the same” by Roy Campbell.]
Gert Strydom, 12 marca 2013
Strike of dustbin men
At the gate to the street
there are dustbins
and rubbish bags heaped up
and you have
to walk on the tar road
in order to pass
and it grieves me
that the municipality
now still cannot get this sorted out.
In town the rioters
pass under police escort
and rubbish is being dumped into the street
as if we are living
in the middle of a rubbish dump.
I have to swerve out
to avoid the rubbish
and the rioters are singing in revolt
and scream and shout jeering
and I see them throwing branches
and small trees
into the traffic
as if they have the right
to cause damage
and see the police
still keeping their distance.
Gert Strydom, 12 marca 2013
He retched and almost choked in it
He retched and almost choked in it
and as the stinking bile
hit his throat
the dizziness of one too many whiskey’s
hit the mark
and he collapsed against
the chest of drawers.
His wife with her cold calculating eyes
reminded him of a dead fish
with a heart of cold stone
with lips pressed tightly together,
but there was something in the stare,
something that pierced him
and reminded him of the disgust
welling up in his spirit,
and erect she stood rocking the child
her nose inch up, as if he was below her
in each and every way
and anger gave power to his hands,
jerking a drawer out
he hurled it with great force
splintering the wood
against her head.
Like a animal that had its revenge
he was turning away
when out of the corner of his eye
he saw red blood
dripping from the forehead of his wife.
Drop by drop fell
on the baby boy’s shining hair
soaking through to the child’s scalp
and in fascination he looked on.
Gert Strydom, 1 marca 2013
Totally alone on Clifton’s beach
Late at night while darkness was everywhere
the horn of a ship bellowed far away
in a sad sound that hanged on the waves
and now in the early morning we walk
totally alone on Clifton’s beach,
find here and there beautiful shells,
see waves curl and break,
hear some seagulls screeching
while water splashes foaming over our feet
where like children we draw our names in hearts
on the wet sand and we notice
the ocean were it stretches into endlessness,
when the streaming water
washes away every sign of our presence,
as we splash and go laughing, teasing much deeper
and under the hot sun that hangs on a cobalt sky
we are lingering for long moments,
are caught in our own world
and I wonder how to make this moment last forever
as it’s almost matchless
when our lips do find each others
and you embrace me with your hair
blown wildly by the wind,
while the sun blinds us.
Gert Strydom, 7 marca 2013
A psalm in the twenty first century (virelay)
From light years far away in space and time
You are the architect
who takes care of a planet the size of a dime;
a far off small object.
You ordain our days and to us intimately connect
as a kind of loving being
giving sanctuary, even if crudely we do You reject,
with You are disagreeing.
Still You are protecting everything that is living,
constantly giving light
even to those who are in rebellion, unbelieving
who yearn for the night
and of Your kindness we do not have true sight,
we judge You incorrect
as a supreme being that rules by force and might,
giving You no respect.
Gert Strydom, 7 marca 2013
Elementary thoughts
Humanly we leave words on paper,
while we try to determine the language
of Him who is the core of the Bible story.
*
We take things consisting out of flesh and blood,
that has got living energy, want to take the elements out,
while we search for the code of life in mortal material.
*
With our mental capacity we are valued equal
to animals that mutate
while the Bible teaches us about a creation story.
*
We think that we know the figure road of the universe,
compose theories that declare things in space
while amazed we do look at the great works of God.
*
Three dimensional we see things,
with length, breadth and depth in which things do fit,
while immaterial we do grope at the boundaries of love.
Gert Strydom, 6 marca 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…
Gert Strydom, 20 lutego 2013
The bit of time (Rondelet)
The bit of time
that together we both do spend,
the bit of time
still have some reason and some rhyme
as our love lasts and do not end,
it is godsend and it does bend
the bit of time.
Gert Strydom, 24 kwietnia 2013
Remind me
Remind me about how it once was
when we were newly in love,
about how neatly our lives fitted into each other’s
before the time when the hurting did begin.
Tell me about all the old stories and tales
that with time still does linger with me,
about fairies, dwarfs and angels
and a God that endlessly does love,
about dreams of travelling to distant countries
and some things you can even fabricate
before everything that is precious
is lost with the approach of time
and sometimes in this old world I feel as if I am lost
when my heart is constantly full of pain.
Gert Strydom, 4 lutego 2013
Behind your green-brown eyes
Behind your green-brown eyes
intense secrets do hide
where at first light
next to each other we lie whispering.
Outside doves
coo, woo and flutter
while a church-bell
calls out the time
when the sun loving like us
gives its last caress to the earth
and the moon’s soft satin
which is swallowed by the darkness of the night
becomes a memory of tonight
where it already hangs naked.
Gert Strydom, 12 lutego 2013
Near Helderberg Hill
There’s a chill tonight
on Helderberg Hill
an icy wind blows through the trees
and it’s raining still,
as it did for days
as it does each
and every Mediterranean winter.
The sweet scent
and not that of the forest of the trees
but of lavender instead is in the breeze
and fills my lungs, fills my heart, my head
until it becomes a part of me
but big eyed you lie
in the bed next to me
and the rain outside falls on and on
with fog cordoning off the hill,
the painting on the wall,
the garden with its bush upon bush
of waving lavender
are now all gone out of sight
and a solitary pistil awakens and grows in size,
entering a calyx, a tubular corolla forming two lips
and it could have been spring
as new life is sprouting, but a chilly winter it is
in the house near Helderberg Hill
Gert Strydom, 4 lipca 2013
This morning
This morning like every other one
you touch here and there in your preparations
and outside a myriad of sparrows fly past
when you put on the light and sleepy I open my eyes.
After a hot bath you comb your long hair
and you blush your cheeks and your lips get a bit of red
and in your bath water the tiredness of my body disappears
and to me even without makeup you are lovely.
Gert Strydom, 7 lutego 2013
To silence
At a hospital bed there are people praying
while they sit on hard benches like those that are harassed
and a pleasant little girl lies unconscious and soundless,
with her face behind a white mask of pain.
There are drops flowing into an intravenous apparatus, drop upon drop,
a monitor measuring her heartbeat constantly
and this picture I cannot forget,
as I see her frolicking past in my thoughts
with blue eyes that laugh full of joy,
like a ray of sun on each new morning,
as a picture of energy
and now she has gone to silence as if death is waiting.
Gert Strydom, 25 lipca 2016
At 52 the nuts of my country are stripped
At 52 the nuts of my country are stripped
so that nothing can fit together anymore
and everything in my world has changed.
At work I have been retrenched
and I can get no other work
in my profession
(for which a person does need a university degree
or two)
where the past of other people
is now catching up with me
as my country has experienced affirmative action
and that just for some people.
Some young people who are already mature
do attend church
but are not interested to be baptised,
do not even live out the principles
of that religion
and young girls in mini dresses
that is so short that you can see their panties
do lead out the song service from up front
and they do pray to daddy God
while a older gentleman
do scream in a black native language
on someone that whispers in an emergency during a service.
People do walk over others from their own people
to fit into the political correctness
where they work at the police or civil service
and the Yin-Yang (good and evil),
the point of view that every person is a god
and for others the prosperity religion
that does believe that those who are prosperous
are the only ones that are blessed by God
is very popular.
There are many old people who are an embarrassment
to their children,
and they are suffering from misery and poverty.
Some young children have got to wait a turn
to eat or not
and I do talk to God
over all of these things when I do kneel down to pray.
Gert Strydom, 14 marca 2016
When I hold you tight
When I hold you tight
then I feel the depth of your trust
and I am aware of your heartbeat
as if every moment holds something deeper.
Gert Strydom, 20 maja 2016
When death’s fingers do me touch
When death’s fingers do me touch
do not let a preacher come
to pray for me.
I will walk alone with my God
who stands free from men
to meet Him face to face.
Do not let a doctor come
to take away the pain
or give the strain of tears
let me be to experience
the blazing sun setting in the west,
to see the moon rising in the night sky
let I live life and follow the course
that destiny designs
and still make your love mine.
Gert Strydom, 28 kwietnia 2016
I see him doing carpentry
I see him doing carpentry,
smoothing a piece of hard wood with a plane,
clamped on a big old vice
before cutting it, sawing it off
to the right length
and there were fire in his big blue eyes,
a burning intensity and integrity in them.
The smell of glue and sawn wood
tell tale from his tool shed,
with always a instrument,
sometimes a pencil, a hammer, a saw
in his big calloused hands
and a tenderness, compassion, love
in the eyes that looked at me.
He was a man who drew up plans
and build a big church
with his bare hands,
without charging for his labour
who knew the exact amount
of bricks, bags of cement,
lintels and whatever
went into a building or house
just by looking at the blueprints
and who could immediately
tell you the cost
almost to the last cent
and his workplace was tidy,
with everything in its place
and my grandpa was gigantic to me,
until one day
that a huge door
at a building came loose
and fell on him thundering
cutting his internal organs,
causing internal bleeding
and at the time
the doctors could do nothing for him
and he was an educated man
who swore that no child of him,
would have to be an artisan,
would have to work with his hands
like himself,
who wanted each and everyone
to get a proper education
at university
and have a decent job
and a great life.
Gert Strydom, 29 kwietnia 2016
When I do consider how my time is spent
When I do consider how my time is spent,
where my emotions and deeds from You I cannot hide
while Your love and goodwill does go far and wide,
in work for others without pay at times I am bent
and whatever I do, You are always present
but at times it feels as if you do me chide
while what I am and am about cannot be denied
and humbly I ask that You do my thoughts of doubt prevent
as Your love, Your goodwill and presence I do constantly need
and but foul and deplorable are my efforts at best
where I am following in a sinful mortal state
trying in my devotions to catch some speed
but each day rushes past without a moment of rest
while almost intolerable people do on me wait.
Gert Strydom, 3 maja 2016
Hoba West Meteor
Near Grootfontein at Hoba West
in Namibia
I saw the fifty-five ton rock lie imbedded
into the earth
where as a fireball it fell from the sky.
That burning piece of iron rock,
could have fallen upon my town Springs,
could have wiped my suburb,
my home into the naught,
like a nuclear device dropping from up high,
in bolide form could have exploded
in blue thunder, could have vaporized
everything in the vicinity
including me, my dogs, my cats
and neighbours too.
Gert Strydom, 4 maja 2016
Please do forgive
Please do forgive all the sin that I have done,
even that heart-held unmentioned one
and all of the vain and evil thoughts, which came before
of which the effects do in the lives of others still run
Please do forgive the sin which fortune for me has won,
also the ones that I in my heart of hearts do shun,
where in innocence I took They name in vain
and those when out of control I do spun
and all the thoughts that were impure and many more
of which your just record does keep score
and all of the times that I have caused pain,
brought trouble to another’s door.
I know that You do sin utterly deplore,
but please take me safely to heaven’s far off shore.
Gert Strydom, 5 maja 2016
With hunger in your eyes
With hunger in your eyes
you did look for a moment at me
with a gaze that does not recede before anyone’s
as if from me
or from someone else you would find help,
as if I had to hear you begging voice
and you did tremble in the cold wind
and somewhere you did loose your own humanity
and again
you wanted food from me
where you were wandering helpless between the shops
and I did not know what to tell you
as life did also turn its back on me
and I did draw the old jacket tighter against my body.
Gert Strydom, 5 maja 2016
Alone we come into the world (for my mom on mother’s day)
Alone we come into the world,
beginning as cells
from somewhere unknown,
fall into life and the experiences of it
and are born from a mother without choice
but if it was possible to choose a mother
no other one would have been as wonderful as you
and my existence is knotted into your life
from the time of my first heart beat
and although you are frail with the years
still firmly you stand against the blows of destiny
and to me mother you are very special throughout the year
while at times life does frighten me mother
and still you take all of my cares to God.
Ostatnie komentarze:
16 maja 2024
violetta
Może w lipcu będę miała takie wakacje:)
16 maja 2024
jeśli tylko
słońce w płynie..
15 maja 2024
Weronika
Za jeszcze jeden rejs!
14 maja 2024
Mam takie oko :)
14 maja 2024
Jaga
Zwierzęta upodobniły się do koloru otoczenia
14 maja 2024
To naturalny suchy i pustynny klimat. I tam są
14 maja 2024
Klimat taki, że nie był i raczej nie będzie,
12 maja 2024
Melancthe
Kajzerki są przereklamowane ;)
11 maja 2024
kb
wielki wypas - był albo może będzie. kto wie...
11 maja 2024
sama prawda z tym myśleniem i psoceniem ale
11 maja 2024
zastanowiło mnie czy owe cenienie kajzerek wynika
11 maja 2024
skomponowane kolorystycznie..
18 maja 2024
wiesiek
17 maja 2024
Deadbat
17 maja 2024
wiesiek
16 maja 2024
violetta
16 maja 2024
Marek Gajowniczek
15 maja 2024
wiesiek
15 maja 2024
Jaga
14 maja 2024
violetta
14 maja 2024
Misiek
14 maja 2024
Arsis