To Write Poetry Poem by Gert Strydom

(after Gail Dendy)

In front of me lies another blank white page
and a poem urges me to write it down,
to write exactly like life is,
to write and tell the absolute truth,

to avoid politics and to spell out oppression,
to tell about the things that comes from the abyss,
about hurt, pain, death and evil things,
also to sing about bliss and happiness,

to sing about nature and the beauty of it,
to rejoice about love and the one that is dear to me,
in the way that I see to give people a glance
to warn about coming events

and where evil is I am not politically correct,
but do expose things like they really are,
write about my experiences in the bush / border war
about businessmen defrauding their employees

but at the back of my mind nibbles the opposition
that argues about the forms of poems that I do write in,
are the millions of eyes of people
that does not want to know about the harsh things

and I am urged to write about God,
about my own life and my place in the world,
yet my words do expose my private life, and me
turns the government's regime against me,

brings its agents to my doorstep
and to be free from the thoughts that do come
means to write them down,
to bleed my soul out with words on paper.

[Reference:"To write or Not to write" by Gail Dendy.]

© Gert Strydom