Gert Strydom, 9 december 2013
When the force of strong conviction
is overwhelming and oppressing
as if others in their own interests
want to drive you away,
from this place, from this country
which you hold high and holy
when you are only seeking an own place in the sun
and do also grant others such a place
its as if you are protected,
as if God folds His hand around you.
When a human being is for many almost a god
and they are convinced that he brings a kind of peace
with his rainbow nation
but job opportunities are denied
for every one that is white,
on his command the Church Street bomb explodes
and innocent children, women and men
pay the price for that decision
then a person realises
that even the time of Nelson Mandela is determined
by the God and judge of the universe.
[References: In his book “long walk to freedom” Nelson Mandela admits to giving the command to explode the bomb in Church Street. “The Church Street bombing was a car bomb attack on 20 May 1983 by Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC), in Pretoria. The bomb exploded on Church Street at 4:30pm on a Friday. The bombing killed 19 people and wounded 217. The Church Street bombing attack was commanded by Aboobaker Ismail, authorized under the leadership of Oliver Tambo and Joe Slovo, with the knowledge and approval of Nelson Mandela. The Church Street bombing murdered both black and white people, and far more civilians than police or military.”]
Gert Strydom, 6 december 2013
From the days of yonder
you did prepare our garden beautifully
and like a English teagarden
planted several flowers together
that they can spread
their magical fragrances and colours throughout any season
and now that summer is coming
and God lets His rain pour down
our garden has become a piece of paradise.
Gert Strydom, 5 december 2013
Sometimes I do ask for a bit of mercy from you,
to hesitate when you do not immediately understand
and to keep at mind
that wherever life goes
I do love you out of the depth of my heart.
Gert Strydom, 4 december 2013
Like a fragile cosmos flower
you came unexpectedly into my life,
before I knew it I did fall in love
and now you turn my days over and over.
Gert Strydom, 3 december 2013
As a mere child I played the marigold game
and pulled off and did divide
the yellow leave one after the other
but now that I have got you
I do not want to determine your love like this.
Everything in life I want to share with you,
I cannot and do not want to forget you
and what does flowers know about true love?
Gert Strydom, 2 december 2013
When the grey days of winter loose their colour
and the golden sun at springtime sits in the hazy blue
then I can hear weavers, sparrows and doves
that does twitter and coo
and then you are in your glory my wife
when you laugh happy like the summer-sun,
when your fingers pull out weeds
and plant seedlings of new flowers
and like a goddess from mythology
you then hold the green
of your own small world in your hands
and then I do realise
that our love also is continually sprouting
and do flower without questions,
that the days of our lives
stretch into each season
and up into distance
but that our love is perpetual
and can even flower in the worst winter.
Gert Strydom, 29 november 2013
I cannot forget
how unnoticed
for a week we follow tracks
where women terrorists
go to a native village
to trade their bodies
and they bring back food
and leave weapons, ammunition, landmines
and hand-grenades at that place
how that women
break away unnoticed from that village
and plant landmines in a road
and a farmer and his wife and child
with their pickup truck lie blown to bits
and I wonder if those people
did not also want a life?
Gert Strydom, 29 november 2013
In the dark night I load rockets
and stand away
while they are fired against the enemy
and I see them drawing red lines
with long flames
burning beyond them
and its like as a child
when I went to the drive-in
and saw how they shoot men off
into space,
on the way to the moon
but these rockets are aimed
at T55 tanks and BTR armoured cars
and soldiers of the Cuban and FAPLA enemy
that burn in unquenched flames
when at a distance the deadly arrows rain down
and I can smell the fragrance of death,
gunpowder and prosperous
on the evening breeze
while I watch the fireworks.
Gert Strydom, 28 november 2013
There is a kind of flower
that only once a year
opens her buds
and when the moon rises full and bright
shows her colours
while people await
the appears of her flowers
in silence in a temple
as if she is holy.
Only once in a lifetime
there is a girl that is like an angel
without any match
and that woman
I have found in you.
Gert Strydom, 28 november 2013
The joy that you bring
when we are alone with one white candle
glowing in our room
while you draw me into a hot embrace
covers all other things,
even sand, grass, flowers and trees
that is outside,
causes me to want the sun
to leave the blue sky
to have you near to me
and to dream while you are here.
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