I Write (Free Verse Sonnet) Poem by Gert Strydom

(after Kenneth Patchen, after Wessel Pretorius)

I write the Africa plain's vastness around you,
send the elephant-cow and grown male lion to protect you,
draw the cobalt blue high-veldt's sky as a curtain everywhere,
send a horde of the Zulu-impi against all kinds of danger.
I write about coots in the marsh
and a swarm of hadidah-ibises that fly past screeching,
along with eagles that do turn on the upper air-streams
to bring you days that continue with tranquillity.
Away from the concrete-jungle that wants to swallow everything up,
from people that in avarice want to destroy others,
I pray the Lord God back into your days,
that you do take all beautiful things into your heart,
that your days become holy like that of a temple
and that God do continue to pour out His love and mercy upon you.

[References: "There are not many kingdoms left" by Kenneth Patchen."Nie baie koninkryke oor nie, my meisie" (Not many kingdoms left, my girl)by Wessel Pretorius.]

© Gert Strydom