To Laugh Poem by Gert Strydom

(in answer to Herman de Coninck)

A smile is something that changes the world
and it does turn everything around
where a mere moment becomes something lovely and much more
and there is a kind of cordial beauty caught in a moment
as if suddenly a person does see life more joyful and different.

There is nothing that pulls as much on my temper
as a silly girl's giggling over something that I am saying,
as is she does not know if she has to laugh but do claim some attention
as if everything in the world is turned around madly on its head.

Roaring with laughter pulls everything and everyone
for a moment to a standstill,
as if a kind of unplanned revolution is hidden in it,
where others want to know what is seen as so very funny
and when it is comprehended a moment becomes something
that has got a kind of eternal value

where life in its madness does bring a person to moments,
where you do have to laugh and sometimes want to cry with sorrow.

[Reference:"Over drie soorten lachen" (About three kinds of laughter)by Herman de Coninck.]

© Gert Strydom