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Poetry

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

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Gert Strydom, 23 september 2014

Absalom

When you did hang like a scarecrow
on your hair
on cedar branches
caught in your own guilt
and megalomania

a father’s heart was torn,
was cut in two
and although you saw him as a enemy
you never knew the depth
of his love for you.

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Gert Strydom, 22 september 2014

How joyfully surprised you made me (cavatina)

How joyfully surprised you made me
on a week day
as tears of happiness did spill and something
strange was at play
when quite suddenly your words and actions did
your thoughts betray
as if you have seen me in a new light,
that day was far past lovely, sunny and bright

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Gert Strydom, 22 september 2014

People conceive me (inside - outside poetry)

People conceive me as overly assertive,
making a stand in adversity,
the motor-biking, parachuting daredevil,
ex-soldier who is wilful, headstrong
and who will take the government,
or anyone on,
and on defending my poetry,
I have even being told
that I need psychiatric care,
must wait until a car kills me in on the freeway,
a established mayor Afrikaans poet have said
that I am selling my soul
for the wishes of my readers,
that my poetry is extreme poor,
written faster than anyone can type,
and totally without workmanship,
that I have not advanced
beyond high school level yet,
I have been told that I am politically incorrect,
that I am spreading hate speech
while I have been exposing the very truth,

while inside I want peace from adversity,
a chance to live a life in tranquillity,
to earn a fair and decent living,
to have a place like everyone else in the sun,
to write poems in any way that I want to,
to use rhyme or free verse
or any other kind of poetic form,
and I am constantly trying new forms,
am constantly trying to sharpen my skills,
I am constantly trying
to become a better person and poet.

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Gert Strydom, 19 september 2014

Poetry (cavatina)

Long before I had experienced strive,
a force unknown
when I was young in life took my own thoughts,
suddenly grown;
not from sin or a search of fame it came
in words full blown
as a constant companion in my life,
more cruel and dear to me than any wife.

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Gert Strydom, 19 september 2014

To a loved one that died

Very early when I did rise this morning,
I saw the morning star glisten white
and my thoughts went to you
when the twilight was much whiter
and I tried to catch your smell, the heat in the bed for the last time,
but you were gone
and I was trying to resist death
but your presence lingers and nothing turns out right
and when I get your fragrance I realise that you are bound to me.

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Gert Strydom, 18 september 2014

In the depths of a grim winter (cavatina)

In the depths of a grim winter when life
felt desolate
there was a fluttering, a twittering
at the front gate
when chilly the wind rocked the big trees;
I could not wait
to go to look and see what made that sound
and a little weaver sang to all around.

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Gert Strydom, 18 september 2014

I wonder if all men long for a girl… (cavatina)

I wonder if all men long for a girl
who has some stay,
acts at time as a harpy, whore and mate;
as she portray
a woman of utmost consequence,
every day
an angel in her own beauty and wit,
and truly blessed is she that has it.

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Gert Strydom, 17 september 2014

From Adam

From Adam man is surrounded by dust
and each one of us returns to the ground
as if there is a secret crumbling in each cell
we play half blindfolded

until the last sunrise
and so man’s time is counted in insignificance.
From Adam man is surrounded by dust
and each one returns to the ground

while the days come and go much too fast,
we do discover love and are wounded
and time makes us whole and healthy again
and like this is the story of each human being.
From Adam man is surrounded by dust
and each one of us returns to the ground

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Gert Strydom, 17 september 2014

Albino

Her red inflamed eyes looks bloody
against her pink white scabby face
and almost colourless white hair frizz on her head
with a vein beating nervously against her cheek.
The glance in her eyes goes almost everywhere
but still teeth gleam pearl white in her mouth
and on a old leather leading strap
an impudent dog jerks
as if it wants to jump right in front of my car,
as if it wants to escape from her and life
and where she is passing I hear her sing cheerfully
as if her body is not holding her back
and when I look past the surface
I see in her heart the great longing.

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Gert Strydom, 16 september 2014

The current Johannesburg

(after William Blake)

In each city street there are people
who continually come and go
on their way to work, trampling with tired feet
and in some of them the spirits are low

as late in the afternoon they return home,
as slaves to a life that is by destiny set
and just here and there they find something wholesome
but some curse, drink and bet

and so life goes on
with drug peddlers that are selling their wares
and prostitutes patrolling up and down until the crowds are gone
and now and then people offer prayers

and I wonder what God on this earth see,
while people live in iniquity?

[Reference: “London” by William Blake]

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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,

Latest items:

Poetry

Absalom

How joyfully surprised you made me (cavatina)

People conceive me (inside - outside poetry)

Poetry (cavatina)

To a loved one that died

In the depths of a grim winter (cavatina)

I wonder if all men long for a girl… (cavatina)

From Adam

Albino

The current Johannesburg

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