Satish Verma, 17 may 2015
The men were pulled out
from homes,
died on road,
burned to bones and ashes.
At the behest of tall,
unforgiving state.
Compulsion of armchair and mansion
distorts, the regrets
of centuries.
The stones,
blameless flowers,
spurting blood
do not recall any God.
Magdalena S., 17 may 2015
kimkolwiek
kwiatem bzu
ostem kolczastym
zapomnianym mleczem
pomyliłam się
nie ma ucieczki
nie ma litości
w sercu mym
kim
jestem
malowana
czerwono-czarna
jego farbami
ja
nikt
kocica śniąca
czarownica stara
młódka i niewiasta
niema
bzdura
apatyczna pani snu
umarła lata temu
Satish Verma, 16 may 2015
In search of a missing clock
he went to the city of a fake encounter.
It was irrelevant to find
the lost tunnel.
There was no street without a rustle.
The sap of tall trees had bloomed
into jaws of death.
He stepped on a land mine
and blew himself
to reach the truth.
And his gift was an
apostate of me.
The tenth day moon will
celebrate my becoming nobody.
The rivals will have
a field day
dancing on my shroud.
Satish Verma, 15 may 2015
They were burned alive.
Most cherished to me,
betraying the functionality of a system,
interstitial asphyxiation took place.
In the garb of a garlanded saint
a gun booms.
The death is rolled from tongue to tongue.
flying limbs get strung on trees.
A faith was in flames,
somebody leapt from the inferno
with folded hands, to melt into a stone
reaching nowhere.
Non-particles were becoming visible
parting the sky.
Nostalgia was possessed with belief of non-believers,
a thought without a thinker.
I am taking liberty, O God
give me something to live!
Gert Strydom, 15 may 2015
When tea is made at half past seven
and again at eleven
he comes from the grass where he has been hiding
or from a tree down he comes sliding,
purring with agate eyes in a haze
as if the whole world is caught in his gaze
and suddenly the black and white housecat is there
while he steps purring nearer with great care
and lovingly he brushes against my legs
with those huge green eyes that begs
for some hot tea
and again at half past three
I have my cat’s loving company.
Gert Strydom, 14 may 2015
I am weak but when You are with me I am mighty
and I am bound by my own insecurity
by the terrible things that life does bring
but when You are with me I am totally free,
free from each and every worry
and Lord, with You beside me
there is nothing that I cannot overcome
and then I am the man that I am supposed to be.
Lord, You do lift me up from where I do fall
and with You beside me I am tall,
while You do straighten the way
and all of my troubles seem insignificant small
and Lord, You are my only friend
when all others do me forsake
and You do see me through to the end
and do my own part take
with you love, power and dignity.I am weak but when You are with me I am mighty
and I am bound by my own insecurity
by the terrible things that life does bring
but when You are with me I am totally free,
free from each and every worry
and Lord, with You beside me
there is nothing that I cannot overcome
and then I am the man that I am supposed to be.
Lord, You do lift me up from where I do fall
and with You beside me I am tall,
while You do straighten the way
and all of my troubles seem insignificant small
and Lord, You are my only friend
when all others do me forsake
and You do see me through to the end
and do my own part take
with you love, power and dignity.
Satish Verma, 14 may 2015
For human face of death
umbilical cord need not
extend. The darkness takes care of
unblemished ghost of sun.
Intergalactic scan remains unseared,
trench warfare continues unabashedly.
Between brothers, the greed calls
for incendiary attacks, for total annihilation.
To achieve the illusion, the blurred statement
feeds the imagination. Deaddiction starts
a race. Deafness of the tunnel. The black
knees crawling on coals.
No night was safe from the condemned suicide.
The creator had the absurd designs.
Why not now the confessional stick,
to beat the darkness? Memory of light
becoming stronger. Give me your hand
to reach the ceremonial peak.
Gert Strydom, 13 may 2015
(after Dorothy Parker)
You do not know
how much I care
about the little things that lays me bare
as love at times come and again go
and sometimes it is in happiness or sometimes woe
while my sincerity is always there,
love is a thing at which I still have to dare
and it’s not always constant even if I want it so
and sometimes I am again on my own
while love flies like a bird away
and even when I do not want it like this
my beloved’s heart at times turns to stone,
while at times it’s a great happy day
and this is the way that life and love is.
[Reference: “A Portrait” by Dorothy Parker.]
Gert Strydom, 13 may 2015
The morning sun hangs bright
over the city,
in a light blue sky
and False Bay, the big flat old mountain
and the ocean is a hue
of navy blue
while I land only for a visit.
Reflecting window doors open
by themselves as if magically
revealing a land of wonder
where the wind bristles through my hair,
hawkers, car guards gather
like a flock of flies buzzing everywhere
and thinking that I missed you,
you fail to turn up
I walk to a waiting taxi
and suddenly like a materializing angel
you are there in sheer beauty,
running up to me, into my arms
and it feels as if I haven’t been gone,
as if this city could again be home.
Gert Strydom, 12 may 2015
While the inhabitants of this planet do still rebel
as for centuries their ancestors have done
under Lucifer and his forces of hell
the great Creator does not expel
one single one
and his Word and his works does of his kindness tell
but at a time there is a limit set
that is to mere man unseen
where every word, deed and ill
is being met
by the righteous boundary between
God’s mercy, His wrath and His goodwill
and to cross that line means an end,
an end to that, which does exist,
even if we do not witness it
and do at ease with our conscience insist
that the laws of God we may bend
and slowly do stray bit by bit.
Yet time has not run out
to change our lives from sin to love,
to repent and be sincere and true,
to let Jesus remove
that which we cannot and to bring about
the change in what we say and do.