Gert Strydom, 4 june 2014
The sun hangs red like a ball
and the high shooting tower skeleton
against the setting sun
and in the distance
there are the flames of Impala warplanes
where they take off
one after another into the night
and later there are a few puma helicopters
that land chattering
and the seven sisters and the southern cross
shine brightly above me
and I wonder
what God thinks about man and his wars
while a red beacon winks
on and off at the tower.
Gert Strydom, 4 june 2014
There are times that destiny does want to devour me
where I am extradited against the stormy wind
and if you in a time like that keep near to me
I am blinded like a child
and know that love goes much further
and are deeper than a person can understand.
Gert Strydom, 4 june 2014
(After Dylan Thomas)
He saw her standing on the pier
watching his boat coming in
a long-legged girl
with her hair twirled
in a French plait
and seaward the brewing gale
was closing in with a black sky
and lightning bolts flashing brighter.
The sails billowed in the piercing wind
and he steered clear of some sandbanks
to the harbour mouth
on the surging swell
into the breakwater
and he could almost smell
the coming storm
while he anchored down.
She was still on the jetty
when stepped up on it
and looked stunning
as if walking right out of
a magazine
and she smiled at him
as if she had been waiting.
He was in love with the sea
and had sworn against any woman
keeping him from it
and nobody would stop him
from sailing when he needed to.
“You just made it in time
cutting it very fine,” she said
and her eyes sparkled blue
and her voice was sweet
and he wanted to frown
but her smile went to his heart
and he asked what she was doing there
and she replied that she loves the sea
and wanted to witness the storm coming in
and that was it and she had him
hook line and sinker.
[Reference: “Ballade of the Long-legged bait” by Dylan Thomas.]
Satish Verma, 4 june 2014
Indulging in self-obsessed navel watch for greedy eyes
like a cloud of saliva around the amygdale, they
walk on sands fudging, seizing contradictions,
smelling of raw flesh and salt, an extinction spring.
The seeds are floating an parachutes between the
burnt-out lures. Everything splits into sparks
charging the air. The guilt looms large, arches
like an octopus, riveting before an artful design.
Just one lump of sugar on peripheral fields to
dilate the pupils in dark baking the bones.
Let us swim up to the wall, wild in our groins
tie up the shoelaces and climb the portrait.
Satish Verma
Gert Strydom, 3 june 2014
While visiting a friend
who was innocently locked up while awaiting trial,
I saw how unapproachable,
chilly, almost emotionless the law officers
are against detainees and their families.
After the fiasco where ostensibly
I wanted to take a photograph
the action of the men surrounding me
locking their hands like cuffs around my wrists
and putting hands in the back of my pants
to hold on to my belt
even the insults and threats
to assault me right there in public
has shown to me how obsessed with force,
how arrogant and absolutely impudent
policemen have become
as if they do not serve the public.
The thing that bothers me even more
is that like in the Anglo-Boer war
white Afrikaner men in that force
are like joiners, like traitors and to survive
they make a mockery of their own culture
will do almost anything
to creep deeper
into the backsides of their black comrades,
as if they are valueless,
totally without manners,
or respect for the rights of other people,
going into life
like the bad white people
that you meet at times,
when called up for military service,
who share naked photographs
and sexual experiences of their wives.
I read the words of a prophet
who forecasts difficult times
and says that the laager of God
is drawn around the houses of everyone
who stays faithful, who stands with their own people,
but they who are one with the enemy
are awaiting destruction.
[References: “Police intimidation” by Gert Strydom. Visionary Nicolaas van Rensburg.]
Gert Strydom, 3 june 2014
My Lord, there are times when I am searching for answers,
are searching to where deliverance lies
and sometimes situations just feel too much
but continually I do find Your answers
on time and unexpectedly.
Gert Strydom, 3 june 2014
When the darkness comes between us
bringing overwhelming separation
and jumping with death
between our lives
so that our love is torn apart
will we then still know of love
or will everything between us
be just a empty nothing
as if further there is no meaning?
Gert Strydom, 2 june 2014
My Lord, I do believe
that You do bring healing and rest
in the times of silence,
that You do continually hold Your hand over me
and are travelling ahead on the way
to set things right.
My Lord, help me to believe more
and to trust sincerely.
Gert Strydom, 2 june 2014
I have given my heart to you,
and did bind myself
more unconditional than wisdom does want,
did lay myself down in your hands
and now my whole existence have been extradited to you
as if to everything you are the core.
as if significant meaning is only to be found in you.
Satish Verma, 2 june 2014
While melting-down he was going to cheat
the death. So be it, bribing the inevitable.
In search of me, you and self, life was
coming to an end. Standing on sharp edge
he wanted to go back to beginning of era,
to try again his fear against coarse future,
to be versed in or not to cease, to yield
to the butchering-ground for salvation.
He did not want to pick up the droppings
now with butterfingers. Let there be a revolt
against the buyers of wallets. Gods have
left the caves and crowds are thinned out.
Prayerwheels are broken. Sky was overcast.
The morality heaves out of bush and steps
up to find a new crisis.
Satish Verma
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