Gert Strydom Poems

(after Eve Merriam)

On all my fingers are some tiny whirls,
a own design
...

Dim but profound in haziness lies
the greater world beyond the scope of eyes
and in every dream and every thought
we aim at what in our own imaging we ought
...

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
...

come from their own accord and are free
like the sun hanging in the blue sky
and so it’s also with you
...

There are times that my whole world does change,
that I am without any friends,
where my career comes to a standstill,
where deliverance looks like an unreality
...

Sometimes when you smile
life changes for a short while
and I am thrilled to be in your company
to see the world the way that you see it.
...

My Lord, sometimes it feels
as if I am going through the most difficult times of my life,
as if alone I stand in a place of destruction
and as if I am constantly drawing fire from my enemies
...

(with apology to Daniel Hugo)

My little buck I am wooing you
- my prints lay - right over the sand dunes -
...

(in answer to Peter Levi)

If you imagine a created place
where God had never been,
...

Man
friendly, excited
scheming, hunting, working
woman, vehicle, job, house,
...