Jose Claassen Poems

When the sun can rise on a man
leaving behind his sins
who finds once more that the sky is not a ceiling
but a trap door to the universe,
...

O for the love of you
that I should die
because I love you,
I fall asleep with a sigh
...

In the midst of the heat
and the press of the day
In the dearth and the peril
of our mortal clay
...

This street is so full of my life this Noordgesig
is so full of the rival gang’s knife
that reduced Melagog to pieces
like the fractions of a brighter future
...

Black ash rains down
From a blaze in the nearby veld
Black ash
With no hope
...

I sat there
by myself
in a room with people
who talked and laughed
...

Daar tussen nêrens en Namaqua
Daar waar die Namibgrens
sy pote in die grond vassteek
Daar in die mittel van verlatenheid
...