Gert Strydom Poems

(with apologies to A. E. Housman)

While bells at twilight toll
this day like usual, I am without a soul;
...

hanging at the mirror image of the window
catching the eye of a shrike
and the bird flashes past with stretched out claws
and for a moment the insect vibrates scared
...

I

We are the men stuffed with what
society needs us to be
...

At a time I did truly love,
as if it comes from God above
with something in every kiss,
something that I cannot explain,
...

Write something today
that sweeps my feet, my heart away
with a kind of loveliness,
that falls softly like a golden ray.
...

(after Hafiz)

My body is the temple of His love,
my heart, my mind even though my own
...

Without change our God exists,
through aeons the same,
to our fathers a comfort and help
and with us still his love remains
...

A brown rock-pigeon, flutters just past the porch
picks up some small insects from the mown lawn
from where it continually calls its mate,
at a distance sparrows splash in water.
...

Somehow you are missing from my memory.
The night falls slowly, coming with tranquillity.
Deserted is our once happy home as you are gone,
my whole life has turned into stone.
...