Venice, Dreamt 28 November 2021 Poem by Gert Strydom

(in answer to Aleister Crowly)

Tonight the moon rise huge gold and blue,
hangs in the infinite sea of space like a pearl,
in the Venetian gondola I look at you,
where you are my darling-girl,
and to each other we do stay true, Daleen,
on barely a swell sails the gondola.

The water gleams around us and is calm tonight,
nothing stirs in the placid lagoon,
above us the silver-white stars are bright,
in this dim light it's romantic under the moon
and to my eyes you are of beauty a sight, Daleen,
on holiday in June we enjoy the gondola.

Tonight to all of life there is beatitude,
in tranquility we sail pass mazes on waterways
and in our lives this is a sweet interlude,
a musician on his old guitar plays,
it's almost a highlight of all things good, Daleen,
you intimate closeness touches me in the gondola.

Many lights of silver, white yellow and gold
reflect as the boat sways, buildings tower above,
the scene is to experience new and ages old,
while now a violinist plays sad songs of love
and how I wish this was our future foretold, Daleen,
but alas this is just a dream of you and me in a gondola

but still in life our own dream goes on,
while your lips are soft and red, your tongue a thunder-flash
and only if you or I choose it, all of this is gone,
with words that do painfully each other lash
but in all of this you remain to me the only one, Daleen,
as my true sweetheart sailing in life's gondola.

On the lagoon lights throw a huge crucifix
and at heart we do both God love and know,
above us brightly shines the Sisters and the Styx
like a cat's, full of passion your eyes glow
and His infinite mercy and love with ours mix, Daleen,
even if the tempests rocks and surge our gondola.

(Reference: 'Adela' by Aleister Crowly.

Poet's note: I am quoting Aleister Crowley's poem here:


'Adela' by Aleister Crowley

'Jupiter Mars P Moon
VENEZIA, 'May' 19'th',1910.'

'Jupiter's foursquare blaze of gold and blue
Rides on the moon, a lilac conch of pearl,
As if the dread god, charioted anew
Came conquering, his amazing disk awhirl
To war down all the stars. I see him through
The hair of this mine own Italian girl,
Adela
That bends her face on mine in the gondola! '

'There is scarce a breath of wind on the lagoon.
Life is absorbed in its beatitude,
A meditative mage beneath the moon
Ah! should we come, a delicate interlude,
To Campo Santo that, this night of June,
Heals for awhile the immitigable feud?
Adela!
Your breath ruffles my soul in the gondola! '

'Through maze on maze of silent waterways,
Guarded by lightless sentinel palaces,
We glide; the soft plash of the oar, that sways
Our life, like love does, laps --- no softer seas
Swoon in the bosom of Pacific bays!
We are in tune with the infinite ecstasies,
Adela!
Sway with me, sway with me in the gondola! '

'They hold us in, these tangled sepulchres
That guard such ghostly life. They tower above
Our passage like the cliffs of death. There stirs
No angel from the pinnacles thereof.
All broods, all breeds. But immanent as Hers
That reigns is this most silent crown of love
Adela
That broods on me, and is I, in the gondola.'

'They twist, they twine, these white and black canals,
Now stark with lamplight, now a reach of Styx.
Even as out love - raging wild animals
Suddenly hoisted on the crucifix
To radiate seraphic coronals,
Flowers, flowers - O let our light and darkness mix,
Adela,
Goddess and beast with me in the gondola! '

'Come! though your hair be a cascade of fire,
Your lips twin snakes, your tongue the lightning flash,
Your teeth God's grip on life, your face His lyre,
Your eyes His stars - come, let our Venus lash
Our bodies with the whips of Her desire.
Your bed's the world, your body the world-ash,
Adela!
Shall I give the word to the man of the gondola? ']
© Gert Strydom