Ode To The Bushman Paintings Of Southern Africa (Refrain Stanza Sequence) Poem by Gert Strydom

I
In the caves with sandstone walls full of paintings there is quietness
where African historians and shamans do worship, life and culture express
it brings a person back to a primitive uncivilized happy time
with animals, humans and therianthropes more vivid than any rhyme
and ox-wagons with mounted men with rifles that they do witness,
the qualities of animals or men are exaggerated for emphasis in their shape,
dynamic battle scenes portray attacks on occupants of caves with no escape,
for powerful supernatural potency Eland antelope pictures are drawn in excess
where African historians and shamans do worship, life and culture express.

II
One can almost hear the people gathering about fires sing
where at the slain animals they are dancing and worshiping,
while in the sky the yellow moon hangs as a token divine
and men and animals are noted down in every fine line,
where they portrayed the things in their lives existing
drawing Voortrekkers with the Boer with a rifle and hat,
an Arab slave gang with colours mixed with fat
and pictures where the men with bows are hunting,
where at the slain animals they are dancing and worshiping.


III

The red Hartebeest has the kink to the horns in the way they picture it,
and their lifestyle is expressed on the walls in colour bit by bit
and humans are not true to life but lifelike with the buttocks enhanced
distinguishing Busmen from other natives who were more advanced,
the Reebok's ears and snout is exaggerated and the Oryx antelope do fit
and sometimes a shaman is pictured talking to God in a trance,
where the Eland could this experience somehow enhance
in pictures men do usually run, do not walk or stand or sit
and their lifestyle is expressed on the walls in colour bit by bit.

IV
Where the Eland is larger than cattle it expresses having plenty of food
and they though contributed to things being good,
when they do pray and sacrifice the Eland has a spiritual role
as portraying well-being, healing, beauty and peace on the whole,
faces were not drawn and this must not be misunderstood
as too difficult as they though it rendered them vulnerable to harm
and with even the paintings they wanted their god to charm,
even the roles of the lammergeyer, lion and elephant they did understood
and they though contributed to things being good,

V
They painted in colours of brown, red, yellow, white and blue
they used blood, ferric oxide, bird droppings and charcoal for the correct hue,
melted fat, beeswax or egg-white and used a brush of wildebeest mane
used monochromes, animal outlines and figures and drawings were mundane
but seldom did they paint the object, as it really was true
but never did they paint plants as in a hunter-gatherer society
this was the domain of women and in pictures only one white woman we do see
as the White Lady in the Brandberg and what she does there no one has a clue,
they used blood, ferric oxide, bird droppings and charcoal for the correct hue.

© Gert Strydom