Gert Strydom, 4 november 2014
I see shadows everywhere,
one follow me
but the rest just
image off the things in my life.
Still love fills me
and is now more than just
another thing leaving its mark
since it’s part of every word and deed.
Gert Strydom, 28 october 2014
Early on a winter morning in Cape Town
the rain is sieving down as it has done for days,
the sky is covered with grey clouds
and inside are you and I
cosily in a hot bed.
There are footsteps in the hallway
that sneaks to the room and two cold children
get into the bed with us
and when the big old clock strikes seven o’clock
its time to get up, to get ready
for work and school.
Gert Strydom, 22 october 2014
When the aeroplane does descend
at Jan Smuts airport
(or whatever they now call it)
lights lie as far as I can see,
they glitter like jewels in the night
and there is a hodgepodge of people
that waits upon their luggage
and I am waiting on a briefcase and suitcase
but when you do notice me
everything fades away, the big city
that does stretch from Johannesburg to Pretoria,
the crowd of people that are coming and going
and it’s only you and I standing in each other’s arms.
Gert Strydom, 21 october 2014
I am jealous on the friends,
colleagues and children
that is daily with you
and even your two dogs
that holds you company
in the afternoons and evenings.
I am jealous on the beach
where in summer
you lay and tan
and on the bed
where both your sheets
have got you tightly against them.
It is quite a thing
to be without money
and more than a thousand kilometre away
and to love.
Gert Strydom, 20 october 2014
At the local church I had been gardening
as it was my responsibility
and the bee box of the old retired minister
had become a danger to me
as if it housed beings that was sinister
and after reporting been stung nobody did a thing.
At the service in church there was an ominous humming
where that swarm of bees near the back window was left to be
and a sermon a pastor did administer
when the congregation did some angry bees see
and great fear did in the church register
while that small harpies that could fly were stirring
and did sting a first time visitor in the face
to the church’s and God’s disgrace.
Gert Strydom, 17 october 2014
No other man
can ever feel,
like I do feel about you
and the things between us
is so special and unique
that nowhere else it is just like this.
If not I would have known,
would have heard somewhere
or someone would have told me
how it is to be an explorer,
would have told precisely how it feels
to have new experiences constantly
with a new coast laying
to starboard and how it is
to experience new adventures all of the time,
to experience the swelling breaking sea
that tears at life and brings changes
and how it is to discover a new unknown continent
and the things that are between you and me
causes me to constantly
want to sail through your waters
to the harbour where I can hide
against the storms,
and I want to spend a lifetime with you
when the sea rushes storm-strong
and the waves are crushing down
and also when the water lays mirror smooth and calm.
Gert Strydom, 17 october 2014
Throughout my life I am trying to know God
do notice His handiwork in nature,
in the events happening in my life
that could not just be destiny
but my own powerlessness against the darkness,
and the presence of the evil
that strikes continually is almost overwhelming
and the world is full of pain and fear
and here I come to the realization
that I am only mortal and human
while people elevate themselves like gods,
are caught in the spirit of the time, the zeitgeist
and even when my honourable ideals come to nothing
the love of my God remains selfless.
Gert Strydom, 16 october 2014
There are rooms of the heart
that is closed to others,
places that no other human ever see
and at times that darkness is overwhelming
in our internal journeys
where we mask our vulnerability
from the whole world
until another individual comes
who we do love more than our self
and the uncovering and revelation
begins systematically bit by bit
and a person believes like a child
that trusts implacable
in hope, love and the illusion
that the world
can be a bit better
without despair or any fear.
Gert Strydom, 16 october 2014
The sea is calm
and the tide is low tonight,
I can see no moon
and the sieving rain
is even blotting out the stars.
Somewhere out there
I hear a ship’s horn blowing in the fog
that rises from the cold deep,
next to me you lie asleep
and I wonder how our love keeps growing,
exactly what causes us to love more and more
and love to be between us like a living thing.
Gert Strydom, 16 october 2014
When death’s fingers do me touch
do not let a preacher come
to pray for me.
I will walk alone with my God
who stands free from men
to meet Him face to face.
Do not let a doctor come
to take away the pain
or give a strain of tears
let me be to experience
the blazing sun setting in the west,
to see the moon rising in the night sky
let I live life and follow the course
that destiny design
and still make your love mine.
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