A Last Day Perarca Speaking (Italian Sonnet) Poem by Gert Strydom

(in answer to Joan Hambidge)

When we came with each other face to face
you were past all other expectations to me,
as no other lovely woman had your sincerity,
I was speechless with your beauty and grace

but then destiny tried our lives to erase
in a way that we did not want life to be
but through this our love still stayed free,
no tears could your love disguise or deface.

Before all of this I saw you in my own Avignon,
like Petrarca thought your presence into my life
and I can write poems like him but do remain true,
I pray you into my days while you are gone,
where your eyes roam in my mind, my wife,
and to others unusual, in my heart it's only you.

[Reference:"N.a.v: " Latter-day Petrarca" aan die woord" (After a "latter-day Petrarca" talking" by Joan Hambridge.]