A Farewell Lay For Minette
I
Minette, the wind now whispers, are sometimes raging
as if its calling your name while I am aging
and forever you will be sweet and young,
sometimes it feels as if around me a war is waging
while I am trying to find my way
in a world where destiny sometimes havoc play
are looking for answers to the questions of life and living
while my life passes without you day after day.
II
Far too happy was the day that we met
as if by some fiddling of destiny it was set
and while I stopped to give you help
with tears your cheeks was wet,
but the smile that came upon your face
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poem by Gert Strydom
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The Cango Caves
One holiday on route to visit Cape Town
we first visited the High Gate and Safari
ostrich farms in Oudtshoorn,
where we saw jockeys racing ostriches,
to the sounds of a cheering crowd,
birds pecking everywhere
in huge camps
and round stones, coins
and shiny metal things
coming from their stomachs
displayed in can fruit bottles.
There were ostrich leather shoes,
handbags, wallets and purses
and ostrich stakes
and biltong for sale
and different kinds of curios,
but my brother and I were happy
with some ice cream
and a cool drink or two.
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poem by Gert Strydom
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My Love Outshines The Summer Sun (Sonnet Corona)
(after William Shakespeare)
I
My love outshines the summer sun,
even stars in their remote twinkling light
and her eyes are more beautiful, each one
than the stars glimmering at night
Her cheeks is dimpled cute
her hair is an auburn crown,
her cheeks is rosy beyond repute
her hair is sun-shot twisting in a way of their own.
Her lips are more soft and warm
and her spirit is more mild
than a ray of light falling on my arm
or at times more free and wild
than birds where they fly,
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poem by Gert Strydom
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Sonnets of the stone ruins
I
Long ago a mighty hunter
sailed on the river to look for medicine
and his canoe made from tree
was swept along with uprooted trees
by a river in flood.
He lost control over the boat
and in the distance
a thundering sound
hanged in the air
mighty smoke
rose ghostly out of the water
in a fine spray
and he could hear tons of water
flowing down a cataract.
II
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poem by Gert Strydom
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The book sealed with seven seals
I had a dream that I heard the voices
of uncountable angels, beings
and elders around the throne of the Almighty One
proclaiming that the lamb that was slain is worthy.
Their appearance was blindingly bright,
but the radiance of the Almighty God on His throne
and of His Son was so intense
that it wanted to burn my eyes
and I stood back
and the hour work started to ring off the last strikes.
When the Son of God
who died on the cross
opened the book that only He can,
He took the book
with His nail marked hands
and broke the first seal.
A being spoke with a voice
sounding like thunder: Come and look!
A white horse appeared
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poem by Gert Strydom
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Et Memoria [2]
Kom stap vanoggend deur my lewe
terwyl ons, ons gisters onthou,
‘n nuwe dag voor ons oopvou
en laat ‘n afdruk van jou
geskilder teen die seildoek van my gedagtes
want elke nuwe môre
word uit ons gisters gebore
en jy bly deel van my, al is
alles tussen ons nou verby,
sien ek jou in die glans van die son,
die dou wat blinkend op blare sit
en ek besef nou, dat liefde
in elke oomblik van onthou
weer van voor af begin
en hoe langsaam rek ek nog
oomblikke wat reeds verby is uit
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poem by Gert Strydom
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The Child Is Still Alive
(in answer to Ingrid Jonker)
The child is still alive,
his spirit nobody can extinguish,
the small fists of the child hits on its mother's back
where she is carrying him
and out of control the child is crying
when his mother screams Africa and amandla
or like a Voortrekker woman with bare feet
try to find a way in the veldt to wild fruits
with snot that runs from his nose over his cheeks
where paper thin dogs run away scared
and a murderous crowd walks in the street,
but the child's voice
is swallowed by the roar of the crowd.
The whole country is degenerating
with cities becoming hovels overnight,
in anger the child lifts his fists against his father,
throws bricks and stones that fall like hail
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poem by Gert Strydom
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Johnny Goes To War
At the age of eighteen
just after writing his final matriculation exam,
Johnny is called up to do military service
and when the pickup on the farm
have two flat tyres
and Johnny cannot get to the station in time,
he is fetched by three broad shouldered
military policemen who initially
want to arrest him
and shove him into a waiting military pickup van.
In the army he receives food
that gives him stomach flue
and for the first week
is almost stuck to the loo
and the mash potatoes
coming from a packet as powder,
runs into everything and has no salt in it
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Lamia
If science can make
all magic things just trivial
and give explanations to all,
cause the rainbow
to unfold as a prism,
what are the images then
still lying in my unconscious soul?
Does doom and destiny
write their own lines
and are there still mysteries
lying somewhere
at the edges of reason,
lurking and waiting
for the right time, moment
and circumstance to appear
to step from shade
into the clear
and could the “tender-personed Lamia”
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The words of a child
When we were small
my younger brother and I
had to stay with the Von Hörsten’s
during the day,
when my mother went to work
and we had to play outside
and was threatened
that we would get dresses
when we wanted
to come into the house,
but this staying
ended dramatically
in my sixth year.
One night my mother wanted to know
how it is going
with out daily visitation,
whereupon I told her
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poem by Gert Strydom
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