Gert Strydom, 15 august 2012
In the vastness of the desert
the landscape disappears in the distance,
while the sun roasts everything,
while continually its shines bright and mercilessly.
Gert Strydom, 15 august 2012
When the southeaster really starts to blow and jerk,
then white horses gallop down in the bay,
then bricks and oak trees are plucked out
when even big ships are tossed to and thro
and pine branches swing up and down,
when doves hide beneath roofs for the rain
and the people of Cape Town have barbeques in their homes,
when it feels as if the cold wants to turn you to stone,
as if the whole of nature is suddenly crying
and then I want to go to somewhere else.
Gert Strydom, 15 august 2012
Early in the morning
when the sun just appears over the hillocks,
when the guinea fowl call from the field,
then I see him
with his crooked walking stick chewing biltong
and the morning is dumb,
pure like an angel is his company;
before he disappears between the green maize stalks.
Satish Verma, 15 august 2012
How will you carry the mount of tears
in the vally of temples? Kites flowing
in sky of beings-egos-denials and
repeals.
Smiling at pain I unspeak to a keeper
of cage, under the shadow of golden
roses, walking with blue eyes of private
hymns.
I craved and dispossessed myself in the
rainy convulsions. The stupidity of
invoking rainbows. In tall grasses
the eyes were looking for the brazen
clouds.
And I am arrived today at the quirky
revealation to exist or not to
exist amids the crouching facts, trees
down shedding the arms and legs
always.
Satish Verma
Gert Strydom, 14 august 2012
I love you with the feelings,
the silent power
that comes from the depths
of the heart of a man
and although you life beyond the horizon,
in a world that is miles away,
thoughts bring you at times
to here close to me.
Gert Strydom, 14 august 2012
I have loved you during each summer’s day,
though age now comes with years far too suddenly
nothing existing can take our feelings away;
in the times of hardship you have been friendly,
have brought light and brightness to every shade,
your beauty comes from the heart and will not fade
its great power springs from love that does not decay;
in winter your smile is like a summer’s day
Elizabeth, 14 august 2012
To the God of my life,
I pour out my heart.
God, thank you for taking
me out of the dark.
You saved me again.
I want you a part of my
Everything now.
Give me the wisdom,
So I know how.
Please save me again.
I now trust you completley,
My life in your hands.
I can do all things now,
believing you can.
Come save me again.
Gert Strydom, 13 august 2012
A stairway wounds up to a springy height
where my body reaches high against the blue sky,
the pool’s is small against my eye,
where I stand in contemplation
while gravity binds with balance
but with a exceeding kind of rocking
before highly sprung power has to sway
when I bounce up and down in movement
and suddenly become a projectile that launches
powerful from up high
with a planned, calculated arch
and I am cleaving the air in a single moment
and when I dry myself a bit later,
I want to aspire to for better attempt.
Gert Strydom, 13 august 2012
(after Philip Larkin)
There is a cheering crowd in the stands
with some people waving betting cards
while majestically they thunder past
in bright colours with jockeys
standing in the stirrups, bending low
running the distance at full speed.
Some people cheer with joy,
while cameras flash, video cameras record
others disappointed, sit down
waiting for the next race
while crowds of empty cars
wait outside and women parade
their dresses as if on show.
[Reference At Grass by Philip Larkin.]
Gert Strydom, 13 august 2012
When the waves get some height,
the foaming, breaking sea calls him,
to ride them,
to go into the washing water.
Even when a cyclone pushes out bigger waves,
he sees the beauty of tunnel and crest,
he becomes part of the ocean
and his robust tanned body swims
deeper into the sea,
while he searches for the place of birth,
the place where the waves begin
before he stretches himself out on the board like a god
are captured in the foaming tumbling beauty,
and cuts right though a pipe before it breaks with brutal force.
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