Gert Strydom Poems

I was a skinny child
in short shirt and pants,
who walked blonde through the ploughed fields,
feeling the soft lumps breaking beneath my feet,
...

Early evening when dusk was falling,
my mother turned with fine fingers
through the pages of the black book
and she looked pretty and womanly
...

(for Annelize)

When age
leaves its marks on my life,
...

(for Annelize)

With your bright presence, the sunshine
irradiating from your green-brown eyes,
...

Before the final darkness
I want to forgive you for every wrong thing,
...

I am searching for a verse
that is somewhat different and unhindered,
of which the words are pure and without blemish,
that gives more light than a flaring candle
...

There are white bullets
falling from a blue sky
and blossoms, leaves on branches
and car roofs
...

Closing the garage door
a wasp was flying past my head
but strangely it didn’t come for me
and for the first time
...

There is something in the way
that you look at me,
something in the way
that your eyes sometimes
...

It’s as if the last repose of winter isn’t spent,
as if it carries on without end
and the veldt is stripped bare,
the winter grass burnt to ashes
...