Gert Strydom, 17 april 2012
From the Orange Free State to the Transvaal
farms and towns burn,
from concentration camps women, children,
do not return,
up in the hillocks European farmers fight;
not taciturn
Emily Hobhouse does expose some ills,
many innocents the British do kill.
Hard driven men who read the word of God
fight very brave,
hear the British sing their God save their Queen;
they cannot save
some twenty thousand women and children,
but they do crave
for freedom and for a place of their own,
are forced to swear loyal to the crown.
After that bitter war they have to sing
“God save the queen,”
return to decimated farms and towns,
their pain unseen,
impoverished they make a living,
for peace are keen;
to today their kinsmen do not forget,
in God’s record His punishment is set.
[Reference: “1887” by A. E. Housman.]
Gert Strydom, 16 april 2012
If our sweet love could not be compared,
if it could not by anything be quenched,
to love you so then I tried, I dared
without expecting to be recompensed,
maybe at the start I was much to bold ,
believing absurdly in sincerity
and I told you clearly what my heart hold
but now I need more than just charity
that with each other our intimate dealings
will be mature, be bound by the same spell,
that there will be magic in your feelings
not only kissing and wishing me well:
for far too many years you have been free.
If you honestly love me, then tell me.
Gert Strydom, 16 april 2012
In you I have seen some great virtue,
a kind of loving that comes selfless
from the heart, a dedication that is true
a kind of kindness that is ready to bless.
I have loved you, as you are really fair,
not only for your company, great beauty,
for your outward looks and your auburn hair
but for the way that you make it your duty
to spread your kind of sheer light and sunshine
when I am around, to whoever you meet
a real kindness that no one can decline
and here now I lay my soul at your feet,
with courage want to look into your eyes
past all previous days, past all goodbyes.
Gert Strydom, 16 april 2012
I have been dreaming of a girl
with sunshine in her hair,
about someone lovely and fair
whose locks the wind does twirl
and up to me she would be walking
on the brightest sunny day
and spontaneous we would be talking
while she would flip all of the yesterday’s away.
Then one day suddenly
my life and the world changed
while you walked up to me
and it felt as if everything had been rearranged.
Maybe there is something in the first time that we both did love,
a secret kind of blessing that did come from above
and although it had been many years ago,
still I do of that blessed summer know.
[Reference: “The red dress” by Dorothy Parker.]
Gert Strydom, 13 april 2012
Brightly hot the sun shines down on some lovely summer days
while the golden moon smiles romantically during long nights,
where are we with dawn or dusk when twilight divides the two?
Gert Strydom, 13 april 2012
There must be a kind of way to make this summer stretch out
pulling it longer, as the shadows on the trees
that the time with my love can linger into a lifetime.
Gert Strydom, 13 april 2012
During our youth we played innocent games without guilt
by the whim of playing them there was a kind of sheer happiness,
but as adults, life and love is a game without absolution.
Gert Strydom, 12 april 2012
Let us every moment recall
as if learning to love all over again
from our first kiss in the rain
and let every gesture big and small
carry a message of tenderness,
let every embrace, every soft caress
be more than the daily thirst,
be much more than normal human bliss.
Gert Strydom, 12 april 2012
I have seen a lovely garden that speaks
of the most tender kind of loving care
with tranquillity, beauty at a peak
with different flowers everywhere
in colours and fragrances that delight,
in their bright variety, their kinds of hue
but then you filled my wavering sight
with your words and intentions that are true
and I have never met someone like you.
Gert Strydom, 12 april 2012
When in rapture and in bliss we do feel
that life is more
that being bound to the mere human body,
that in each kiss
things are different than they had been before;
then we realize
that in that moment somebody else truly do exist,
then we act selfless
to be perfectly part of the one that we do love.
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