Gert Strydom, 11 july 2014
(after N.P. van Wyk Louw)
Our love did wither like a flower,
with the morning-light came silently to an end
and this morning we both are without words
as we do not really know each other.
Where we had been deeply involved in bodily pleasure
we are estranged and blunt with each other
and the emotions that were overwhelming
they now are stripped and bankrupt from love
and last night desire did burn in us both
with a tingling in your hand
when it was soft and vulnerable in mine
and your smile was luring and forward,
your eyes the brightest blue
and when I did hold you closer
there had been something that I could not place
when you spilled wine on my shirt
and now that it’s the new morning
you are much prettier than in the darkness of last night
but that which had been between us is past
and now carries no meaning
and only the smells of love and whiskey does linger
where the sun radiates brightly into your kitchen
and with you here in your own home
I feel redundant, unwelcome and lost.
Our love with the morning-light came silently to an end,
did wither like a flower,
as we do not really know each other
and this morning we both are without words.
[Reference: “Ballade van die nagtelike ure” (Ballade of the nightly hours) by N.P. van Wyk Louw.]
Gert Strydom, 11 july 2014
To you there’s an amazing kind of grace,
as your eyes shines radiant, words they do tell
as the hot sunshine falls across your face,
you are happy, are being loved well,
suddenly you look up and smile at me
are brightening a very lovely day,
you shake your silky hair, let them go free
in strings of colour, in lovely disarray
and I love you, I wonder if I may…
Gert Strydom, 11 july 2014
Sennacherib king of Assyria
send a message to Hezekiah king of Judah saying:
“Do not be deceived by your god
when he assures you that Jerusalem
will not fall to me.
Haven’t you heard
what the kings of Assyria
have done to all the other countries
and how we have destroyed them completely?
Who will deliver you now? Did the gods
of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, Hamath, Eden,
Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena or Ivvah protect them?”
In humility Hezekiah went to the temple
and prayed:
“Lord, enthroned among cherubim
You are alone the living God
who rules over all kingdoms
and have created both heaven and earth
and it’s true that the kings of Assyria
have destroyed the gods of these nations
and have conquered these nations and their lands,
but their gods were only wood and stone
created by man.
Please deliver us from king Sennacherib
that the entire world may know
that You alone are God.”
Then the prophet Isaiah
send king Hezekiah a message:
“The Lord says that Sennacherib
has blasphemed and insulted Him
and has lifted his voice in pride saying
that with his chariots
he has ascended mountains,
that he has drawn water from foreign wells,
has dried up the streams of Egypt
but I know where he lives
and when he comes and goes
and he has raised his voice against me.
I will make him return from where he came
for out of Jerusalem My remnant will come
and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors will come
and he will not enter this city,
even shoot an arrow here
or come against it with shields
or build a siege ramp
and I will defend this city.”
During that night the Angel of God
waged war against the army of Assyria
killing a hundred and eighty-five thousand men
and Sennacherib withdraw to Nineveh
where he was killed by his own sons
while worshipping his god Nisroch.
Gert Strydom, 10 july 2014
With age-old masts creaking,
cursed by Godly wrath,
just before the worst storms in the Cape do begin
an ancient ship is sighted sailing
as a token to break the scorn and blasphemy of man
or so the legend says, with a skeleton at the wheel
of the Flying Dutchman, full of ungodly sailors
who forever glare at each other with thoughts of revenge,
as a spectre strait out of the portals of hell
and if I do remember correctly
there is no salvation or sleep for anyone aboard
and everything turns around the love of a woman
that lived in the most beautiful Cape
and now I wonder how long that ship is still going to sail
as every now and then some seamen do notice it.
Gert Strydom, 10 july 2014
(after I.D. du Plessis)
Catharine of the Western Cape
was caught by passion last night
and she knows that nobody will understand
and this morning she is sleeping late.
Love and the deed of it take many forms for her
and at night the men whistle
when ever she goes into the dark streets
when the old church bell rings off the late evening
and her bitter work does begin
and sometimes she gets a chance
to eat out like a beautiful woman can
but mostly she acts out her age-old trade,
are smiling, impudently forward and sometimes scared
while she longs for better days and another life.
[Reference: “Katrina” by I.D. du Plessis.]
Gert Strydom, 10 july 2014
Where trees stand in the winter night as skeletons
out of the clouds of fog the silver-white moon rises
and in the distance a dog is barking,
when other sounds come that no man can understand,
lightning-bolts flash down without end
and as a mere man
I see the omnipotence out of the hand of God
when the windows rattle as if something wants to come in
and I am astounded by the great scene
when the first drops begin to fall
and rain pours down over the dry earth.
Gert Strydom, 10 july 2014
Sometimes I yearn for you to be near
and I want to find a time, maybe turn the years back
to draw you into my arms,
to look at you with the knowledge
that you are mine
and I wonder about the thoughts
that constantly goes through your mind,
about the things that make you both sad and glad
and somewhere in the distance a star is beckoning
as if it’s a silent guiding light in the darkness of the night
Gert Strydom, 9 july 2014
If you think of me sadly when we part,
when there is loneliness in the heart
then remember how very happy
our days together had been.
Remember me fondly
as your own darling and counterpart,
how my face looked
when a smile would start
and on a bright sunny day
I will return
and heartache and loss
at times is only a condition of the mind
and on another day you will find
the sky to be bright and blue
when I come back to you
and now while you still do care
we have many happy moments to share
and everything that we say and do
stick to our souls like the strongest glue.
Gert Strydom, 9 july 2014
God in His great grace
has made each and every season
with its own purpose and place
and I wonder in what season did life
with its intricacies begin,
was it in the hot summer sun
or during the winter chill?
Gert Strydom, 9 july 2014
A snow-white dove
flies into the room’s window
and I remember how it had been,
how the crowd listened to the voice of God
at the stream where John was baptising,
how that dove descended,
the disciples stumbling around somewhat confused,
the Son of God who somewhat naked
stretched out His hands above His head to His Father,
the peace that suddenly came to the hearts of everyone,
the onlookers that did cover their eyes to the bright light
and how everybody looked and stared somewhat astonished at Him
and still I do wonder why God himself
came to perish for everyone on this planet?
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