Gert Strydom Poems

We went to the house
of Afrikaans poetry together
on weekends and spent hours there
and listened to the master lecture
...

I thank you Lord
that you by grace blessed me
to let my slender flowers grow
flooding over in bell like strings
...

Lord who decreed
and all things had become,
you who exist separate
from the machinations of time,
...

It’s twilight and there is such serenity, Lord
where I sit at a pond and the water
doesn’t even ripple out,
...

Sometimes you embrace me with words
and it’s the only thing that I have
although some of your paintings
hang as companions
...

You are sitting on the veranda
enjoying the breakfast
of eggs fried with tomato with toast
and huge cups of very special tea
...

Goodbye to purple covered Jacaranda trees
which line the streets
and the great laagered fort on the hill
telling stories of times past,
...

Maybe I saw the faces
of a thousand soldiers
while they prepared for war
and some had grim determination, even dedication
...

As man left the shore
venturing over the first horizon
the open blue sea
laid unknown, without route,
...

Although sometimes love is caught
only in moments long
and comes and goes far quicker
than it should be
...