Gert Strydom Poems

(after N.P. van Wyk Louw)

I raised my eyes to You
and wanted to look past this world
into infinity, into eternity
but before You I was naked
...

Gently the sun oozes through the big old tree
where we both linger for moments in the shade,
around us the garden is bright like a painting,
blades of grass are knee high in the veldt
...

An ibis screeched outside
in the garden
suddenly slapped its big bronze-brown wings
and touched
...

They are one with the music,
the muscled man and slim woman
and every movement is smooth
in a combination of grace and power
...

His attitude is set to high precision
where he swings
making the correct grasps lightning quick,
and sometimes just for moments touches the rings,
...

Two people dressed in white
take steps around each other,
and around their middles
black bands are tied.
...

Continually its progressions and rows,
the teacher is on patrol,
his cane sometimes swishes painfully,
there are theorems and more theorems
...

Maybe you can draw winter
in charcoal grey, without light,
or maybe you can old-fashionably
try to ascribe to a growing pain
...

Out of the twilight of the Tsitsikamma-bush
the call of a turaco resounds
where it sits camouflaged olive green
in the fork of a yellowwood tree
...

A swarm of swallows turning twittering
tries to reveal with their swishing flight
that a huge thunderstorm is coming
and with electricity the sky is charged pitch black
...