Terry Dawson

I've met a girl
Louise her name.
Within I feel new strength unfurl
And I'm no more the same.
...

Across the Uhab river's dry bed
Lies a land unlike any other,
An arid plain beside the sea,
Of wild, mysterious beauty.
...

In this life we bear
In equal portion
Mix dare
With caution
...

The spring swallows return anew;
I search for the elusive blue;
Sky-riders of unequalled grace,
Conjures to sight likeness of you.
...

Soft light by gradual stage reveals
(As dark of night recedes)
Idyllic scenes which yet conceal
Most grim and bloody deeds
...

Against wrongs done me
My spirit raged
Hatred-blinded, I do not see
That lust for vengeance
...

In the month of October
As dry as dust
The elephants wait
For the rain that must
...

Africa once again was wracked with pain
As warfare stalked the land
And through the years of the copious tears,
Few could understand
...

The plum in spring returns to life,
In dazzling new white blossoms rife
Which pleasure well the heart and mind
And sense of calm there leave behind.
...

Through the dark winters of loneliness
Dreaming - hearth-fire of the mind -
Is friend. And fellowships imagined
are the summers of Companionship
...

Yesterday's bird-busy garden is gone:
A hardworking wind got up in the night.
A wind, to hear it, with much on its mind,
Impatient of trifles; with much to get done.
...

The barn rooster declares at last,
The new day has begun.
The farmworker prepares himself
To start work with the sun.
...

Out of Transvaal's wild bushveld wide
Rises blue mountain, and on its side
There does abide a woman on her own, Louise.
...

Girl of the Seasons
I think of these days -
Her loveliness is Reason,
Her reluctance dismays!
...

Beneath a fine hat
That is fit for a queen
She rides a her horse bareback
Like a girl in a dream.
...

That
Erratic dancer on the wind, aloft
On chance-flapped wings;
Pauses now-and-then to sup from nectared cup,
...

These flowers now have had their day
Like life's dreamings, they fade away
For every season has its need
As vibrant colour fades to seed.
...

The poet edits
Now his poem
Mind on fire
Mouth afoam
...

The harbinger of dawn up high
Sings his sweet, liquid notes
As it grows light in eastern sky
At the new day's approach.
...

Entranquiled by a darted potion
Upon his bushheld range,
The elephant's world is in slow motion
It seems almighty strange.
...