Winter’s Night
Eugene N. Marias – translated from Afrikaans by Guy Butler
O cold is the slight wind
and sere
And gleaming in dim light
And bare,
As vast as the mercy of God,
lie the plains in starlight and shade.
And high on the ridges
Among burnt patches,
the seed grass is stirring
Like beckoning fingers.

O tune grief-laden
On the east wind’s pulse
Like the song of a maiden
Whose lover proves false.
In each grass blade’s fold
A dew drop gleams bold
But quickly it bleaches
To frost in the cold

That’s all
Jan F.E. Celliers – translated by guy butler
GOLD,
blue;
sky;
and one bird wheeling lonely, high –
that’s all.

An exile come back
from over the sea;
a grave in the grass,
a tear breaking free;
that’s all.

Kestrel
W.E.G. Louw translated by Jean Branford
White is the country
of old days forlorn
a poignant waltz
the sea at dawn;
dew on the dunes, no breath stirring besides,
only a kestrel that calls as he glides, as he glides...

The Pass office
Solomon Linda, translated from Zulu by Hugh Tracey
Remove your hat.
What’s your home name?
Who’s your father?
Who’s your chief?
Where do you pay your tax?
What river do you drink?
We mourn for our country.

(Note, Solomon Linda wrote the song ‘The Lion sleeps tonight’ made famous by Disney in the Lion King. He grandchildren had to fight a long battle with Disney to see a penny from this)

South Africa, 2000
Anonymous
The bigshots
White, Black,
They say
My family live in
Informal settlement.
The big rains say
My family live in
Squatter camp.
Cardboard, plastic, tin,
All washed away,
My family washed away.
The man from policy
The man from funeral,
He say
An act of God.
I’m washed away.

__________________
“The subject no longer has to be mentioned by name. Someone is sick. Someone else is feeling better now. A friend has just gone back into the hospital. Another has died. The unspoken name, of course, is AIDS.”
“From the point of view of the pharmaceutical industry, the AIDS problem has already been solved. After all, we already have a drug which can be sold at the incredible price of $8, 000 an annual dose, and which has the added virtue of not diminishing the market by actually curing anyone.”

Sea ***** by John Masefield

I must go down to the seas again to the lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,

And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sails shaking,

And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.


I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume and the seagull crying.


I must go down to the sea again, to the vagrant gypsy life,

To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife:

And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow rover,

And a quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

I've loved this poem for as long as I can remember. When I read it I can feel the wind in my face and taste the salty sea spray...

Can't remember, it was several years ago when i wrote it.

__________________

Anything since?

This is a good one

O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done; The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won; The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring: But O heart! heart! heart! 5 O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.
2

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills; 10 For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding; For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; Here Captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head; It is some dream that on the deck, 15 You’ve fallen cold and dead.
3

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still; My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will; The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done; From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won; 20 Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells! But I, with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

Walt Whitman

Nothing to the same standard and i've also started focusing on writing books as opposed to poetry.

__________________

The how can you believe in God thread inspired me to write this. But it is really just for fun--not saying anything.

I know little about the structure of poetry, so keep that in mind!

Lonely deity

God cannot save you,
For he has lost His way through snow
In a far off lonely desert,
Where no wind will ever blow
Nothing fills the white of air,
But His muted dragged out steps
This turns the wheels of our existence,
And His footprints lose to the past

A void He dwells,
And sits atop a loathsome throne
There’s no life in these deathly vacant halls
Except perhaps it’s set right there,
On a pedestal made of cold stone
Our blue world spins in a glass,
And there is locked our nature’s mass

Envy writhes like the sea in a gale
Throw, throw our souls to Hell
These men they live in company
A thing this beast can see too clearly

You wrote that? Just now? It's...wonderful CP.

Thanks, Viv. I wrote it when (I think it was Seer) said that God lived outside of time, and I thought that sounded like a lonely deity.





This is a song by Bob Dylan: All Along the Watchtower

"There must be some way out of here,"
said the joker to the thief,
"There's too much confusion,
I can't get no relief.
Businessmen, they drink my wine,
plowmen dig my earth,
None of them along the line
know what any of it is worth."

"No reason to get excited,"
the thief, he kindly spoke,
"There are many here among us
who feel that life is but a joke.
But you and I, we've been through that,
and this is not our fate,
So let us not talk falsely now,
the hour is getting late."

All along the watchtower,
princes kept the view
While all the women came and went,
barefoot servants, too.

Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,
Two riders were approaching,
the wind began to howl.

England in Red
Scotland in Blue
now we are out
Just like you