On a Close-up of Louis Esterhuizen, on His Verse Novel “die onderwaterweg, ” (The Underwater Way)
So tell me Louis, you start your verse novel
of which the story line is very thin,
with a white man lying drunk and silent in hospital
after trying to commit suicide,
with memories taking him back
to events in his marriage with his white wife
who had been a left wing political activist,
where politics makes the marriage crumble,
rather than interpersonal relationships,
were marriages usually crumble
from a lack of communication
and respect for each other?
Where at times he is impotent,
where at times he gets it right,
where he looses her in consequence of a rebellious march
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poem by Gert Strydom
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Gross stupidity
It was at a time
where you had
to wear a uniform to school,
had to cut your hair
to a predetermined length
and got caned
if you were naughty,
failed a test,
or sometimes
to let the teacher
enforce his will.
If you complained at home
about getting a hiding at school,
you would probably
get another there too
if you deserved it,
but if you were right,
were punished unfairly
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poem by Gert Strydom
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Finding your god
After your father’s demise
you didn’t have a god
but you had to find one
or you’re writing of children’s stories
in the nether world of Toeka
(a place far away and long gone)
would come undone.
So we went to caves
to view Bushmen paintings
drove through Namaqualand
visiting quiver trees
to get a pincushion-type quiver
to fit your hunting arrows in
with which you wanted to hunt your god down
past Gifberg with its white poisonous daisies
right through the cruel sea
where only here and there
some clumps of hardy trees
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poem by Gert Strydom
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Mary from Nazareth
Mary innocent girl from Nazareth
when you went on your knees
standing in front of the God of the universe,
before your marriage already pregnant against the law
did you know that the Godly child that you were carrying
would only depend on His heavenly Father,
that He would be downtrodden by men and despised
without ever complaining about his fate?
With your fear during childbearing with pain circled out wider
did you know that He would bring salvation to the world with pain,
that blows would cleave into his body, with a crown of thorns upon His head,
before nails would pierce his hands and feet mercilessly?
That night right there in the stable
when your gaze fell over the bare circumstances
did you know blessed woman,
that the God of the universe
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poem by Gert Strydom
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A police road block
We went to the boy’s rugby match
it was at a school in Centurion
just south of Pretoria
and he was playing really well
got provincial colours
and went to the Craven week.
We parked up on a knoll
and you wanted to stroll down it,
to where the rugby field was
and I insisted that we follow
the road round,
but you cursed me
right there between the other parents
and was determined to have your way.
You didn’t want to hear anything
and your first step
going down that hillock
was the last that you took there,
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poem by Gert Strydom
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Jakobus Le Grange Marais (a reply to Christopher Hope)
One early evening while waiting for a train
I walked into an old station bar,
to buy a cold cider to kill a thirst
in the sweltering
thirty degree Celsius summer heat
and saw a very old cripple man
who nursed a glass of white wine
and he was talking to himself
and sometimes stuttered over his words.
When he looked up at me
there was fire in his eyes
and it was almost as if
he recognized me, from a dream
or a prophecy of something
and suddenly his face was calm
while he called me over for a chat
and I ordered a bottle of brandy for him
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poem by Gert Strydom
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Sonnets of the boy who drew cats
I
A long time ago
when soldiers still carried spears and swords
a Japanese farmer and his wife,
had a string of children
and everyone got a task.
They milked cows, cared after pigs,
gathered chicken eggs
and ploughed the soil,
planted rice, wheat and oats,
but the youngest was too weak and small
to do any work
and time and again he neglected his duties
and disappeared
and drew cats.
II
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poem by Gert Strydom
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Spring (So suddenly she appears)
So suddenly she appears
when the end of winter comes,
with the last icy days disappearing
skipping between seasons
with the glory that no other has,
that she comes against winter as resistance,
makes verdure sprout out,
when she unlocks the power of growth,
letting her smile dropp everywhere
while insects and birds are joining her,
she becomes the princess of the universe.
When you think that last of life is pining away,
that nature only fabricates survival
the sun starts to shine hotter,
the first drops falls and go to the depths of the earth
and then you can notice her secretly working,
how she is spreading her wings in merriment,
when everything starts to perish, are going backward
when she forces winter to end
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poem by Gert Strydom
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Cassinga
Just like spring when the blue sky is full of falling leaves,
there are three hundred and seventy parachutes that decent,
on a ominous day
with enemy AA-guns reporting
and the enemy are more
than a thousand and a half in number.
The barrels of the enemy AA-guns are lowered,
to break us
and the enemy tries to sow havoc
and to decimate us.
Enemy snipers are shooting from trees
and from everywhere
there are shots being fired,
that munches pieces from us
From behind ruins
we fire almost endlessly
at trenches where some enemy soldiers hide
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poem by Gert Strydom
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The dentist thing
I. The evening that I bite right through a molar
The evening that I bite right through a molar
with the nerve lying open,
in a thousand years I do not want over again
and then suddenly I am without an appetite
it feels as if I am loosing my senses,
to put it mildly
while I neatly put down my eating utensils
and the next morning I go without breakfast
but that night that thing
pains and beats
and no clove oil, Syndols or R10’s help
to stop that pain
and it feels as if I can jump up and down
and I am overwhelmed with pain.
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poem by Gert Strydom
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