Gert Strydom (03 April 1964 / Johannesburg, South Africa)

Spring has an own beauty
where grasses and weeds appear with brush
and stem, growing in full lush
and the sky, the air has serenity

and insects, birds and animals are full of activity,
the wind quivers in every bush, bulrush and rush
in the veldt and at the marsh and even the little thrush
sings to its heart’s content with a magic quality

the whole of nature rejoices its joy
as if everything has a new beginning
without any threat or ploy
almost like Eden before the sinning
innocent as the heart of every small girl and boy
where the light of God is brightly shining.

[Reference: Spring by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Note that the rhyme scheme of some Petrach or Italian sonnets was abba/abba/cd/cd/cd and not just abba/abba/cde/cde. Although Hopkins’s verse is viewed as a modern sonnet it meets all the requirements
of a Italian / patrach sonnet.]