Gert Strydom Poems

(after D. J. Opperman)

For her blind father Klara searches and do get lost
and like anything on earth it's a story of heartache,
...

(for Annelize)

Early morning the rain sieves down softly,
I do smell the wet earth,
...

A nest the two bakbakiris did make
in the pepper tree at the garage.
There was grass and leaves and things in their house
and when autumn came and the days got colder
...

(after D. F. Malherbe)

Black-green shiny starling
I hear you scream constantly
...

(for Annelize, after Elisabeth Eybers)

From childhood I do know how fragile
breakable and fine people sometimes are
...

(for Annelize)

If I could catch the sun for you
I would have hanged it as a necklace around your neck,
...

(in answer to Sheila Cussons)

There is a large park outside my flat
where the palm trees are anchored or they are going to fall
...

(in answer to Pirow Bekker)

From above, from the fourteenth flour
you can at night look at the lights of the city
...

(for Annelize)

Slowly my days turn around and around
as the new mornings do come,
...

Long ago there was an older brother
to whom the younger brother did listen,
an uncle that could buy gifts
but life did take its wide turns
...