Near Heidelberg Poem by Gert Strydom

Near Heidelberg there is a piece of farmland
where as a child I did find tranquility
and from all kinds of obligations felt free
when the perils of life I did not understand

and in the open veldt mind chains are gone,
when there is only the sky and hillocks of solid stone.

In towns and cities I have spend many days,
have felt the meaninglessness of what life is,
a loving woman's bliss
and have experienced people and their weird despairing ways

and at a time life did simple seem
but the entire world changed
and my own life was rearranged
and from the choices of youth I cannot myself redeem

but at the stream on the farmland weavers are twittering
and no one else does there go
or perhaps of this place do know
and in the silence there I find something
that brings a kind of peace to the heart.