Holiday Letter (Free Verse Sonnet) Poem by Gert Strydom

(for Annelize in answer to D. J. Opperman)

In front of me in the sugar-bush tree a weaver twitters
where the old farm dam full of water does shine down below
and my days do become full of bright summer sunshine
where without end I am thinking about you,
do notice two bakbakiris (bush-shrikes)frolicking in the long poplar's branches,
how a catfish at the dam makes bubbles do come up and sink away
and I am almost walking on air as you have appeared in my world again,
do see you in my mind's eye in the distance winking at me
and here I am away from the city for moments like in my childhood days,
there is a kind of tranquillity and joy where the plants do grow wild in nature,
where I can pick porkwood, wild plums and medlar,
do wish that I could show you these things and I have got great joy
from the early morning sunrise and I do think of you hour after hour,
while once more my heart is beating unsteadily.

[Reference:"Vakansiebrief" (Holiday-letter) by D. J. Opperman.]