With Waheed they had roughly dealt,
The bitterness still deeply felt.
Enroute did Celts him with stones pelt
And he's like the hit with strong belt
"Let's watch him smile and fail to melt"
He won't for all The South's veldt!"
Black Tourist facing Racist Celt:
Any time out of doors would melt.
Begged he had all Celts and down knelt
But they had his feeling not smelt...
Waheed guessed he'd his feet planted
Where both right and left aren't wanted.
Categories:
veldt, cry, evil, fear, prejudice,
Form: Rhyme
African Spring
The rain has settled
liquidy soil
ingested to wait
the blessing of Spring
nature renewed
mystical blooms
surround the veldt
in Africa
endeared by Sun
Clivia
yellow strength
likens Sun
waits for
its kin
Moon
Diminished Hexaverse Contest
Sponsored by Caren Krutsinger
April 20, 2019
* This is a hexaverse poem but not listed on selection
Categories:
veldt, africa,
Form: Free verse
the glebe
the veldt
the steppes
the glens-
the dells
filled
with
sedge
and
vetch
pebbles
sand
and
tufts
of
grass
catch
the
wind:
the salt air
succours
thirsty
poppies
so fair
Categories:
veldt, nature,
Form: Verse
Don't tell me you love me
I've heard it before
The words have no meaning
I need to have more
Don't tell me you need me
That might not be true
For words without substance
Mean less than they do
Actions speak louder than words
I know what you're saying
But, I haven't heard
You have to show more
In a physical way
You've got to show actions
If you want me to stay
If I hear "I'm sorry" again
I will show you the door dear
"I'm sorry" is empty, vacant, a veldt
It's not what I need, It's what you think I should hear
Show me some actions
Back up what you say
After all, words mean nothing
They're just the script for this play
Show me you love me
Don't just say "I do"
I want you to mean it
Show me something new
The words have no feeling
The emotion is gone
It's like you're reading the lyrics
To a music-less song
Actions speak louder than words
I can hear what you're saying
But, with no meaning it hurts
I need reinforcement, it's simple you see
Because Actions speak louder than words
So show me you love me
Don't tell me again
Your words have a hollow, dead sound
So show me with actions, that I am the one
If you want to keep me around
Categories:
veldt, dedication, how i feel,
Form: Rhyme
We shall meet again, my friend
in Johannesburg, my friend
After the revolution
Ha! Ha! Ha!
We shall dine on gold plates
And wine on rich red blood
We shall roam the open veldt
from Pietersburg to Natal
Cape Town to Port Elizabeth
Our spears raised in triumph
Our poisoned arrows in their sheaths
Our teeth sharpened for the dinner party
Yes, we shall roam, my friend
From the Limpopo to the Drakensburg
We shall chant
We shall shout
We shall sing and jump and dance
After the revolution
Like the savannah in flames
Our laughter shall be heard
across the length and breadth
of this earth, my friend
Our darkness shall permeate
the golden castles and silver beaches
their presence has putrefied
They all shall be cleansed
Heja! my friend
Till we meet again
in Johannesburg
After the revolution
Categories:
veldt, africa,
Form: Free verse
Four hundred fifty and seven hours
When all we owned were April showers
Taking a chance on a pixelated face
Became the preferred post-coup de grace
You elected against the unpolished show
When you tossed the dice atlas in tow
Our nerves had a knack for steering the wheel
When you came home they proved puerile
We would have danced if there had been rain
When the stars fell silent on mid-west plains
Running the veldt with our dreams in tow
We seized our future and made it so
Now with this seven month’s consequent
We count our grace and build our monuments
To one thousand holidays now forthcoming
A binary euphony, a song never ending
Categories:
veldt, love, relationship, romance, song,
Form: Rhyme
The great cats are divine,
they might lay like kittens at your feet
but they walk like masters of the veldt,
their rippling forms are a shadow, a dream,
to the breathless advance of the jungle steam
rolling over your heavily beating heart,
and they hear...
you might fear of the things they can hear,
things never meant for a human ear,
but your strong young lion is near...
and his purpose is clear,
the question is, what do you fear?
A powerful form that rubs at your legs
laying his mane on your thighs,
but never gaze deep in his eyes,
... don't assume you can tame
the most dangerous game
ever to frame the savanna skies.
copyrightacb2000
Categories:
veldt, cat,
Form: ABC
Grass
A Man of discernment the grass he gazes
With invariable appetite as a cow that grazes;
Grass in plains meanders with admiration,
And up the hills in its converse undulation-
He’s green, not with envy, but admiration!
The Idiot who laid a carpet, forgetting grass
His mind is dowdy and his brain has no mass
Who would dare bestow him worthy hugs
Who defiled the Soccer Pitch with shop tugs
Who killed Nature whilst in pursuit of rugs?
Green veldt, green courtyard; green, green
Green is life; where green is there’s no spleen.
Should distance of a kilometre grass you eat
Chances are that, should you survive the feat,
All ailments you’ll be cured once and neat!
Should we not eat grass- listen to the murmur-
To savour its natural taste and green glamour;
We better adore, stop to inveigh or to boast
In white milk we drink and meat we roast
Grass daily fills our stomachs with the toast?
***Inspired by the beauty and surreal view of a freshly mowed lawn.
JM
24th Nov’ 2013
Categories:
veldt,
Form: Rhyme
It is two o’clock and the sun is shining.
Its rays are shimmering on the ground.
The rain had come with perfect timing.
School is out, and boys fooling around.
The rays are reflected from high above
and the rain has fallen at the usual time.
Why does it happen always at lunch?
And yet again for afternoon tea?
Those were the days on the high veldt
when summer days were predictable.
School is out and shoes are off
some are paddling in the gutter.
The water is warm, but not from the sky.
Warmed by the road that was steaming hot,
after a brief shower it then becomes dry.
The warm water flows only one way,
until it finds the grate of the drain.
With a gurgle, a swish and a sway,
it will be in darkness until it emerges again.
Now as a stream it will see the sun.
It’s hard to imagine that some of the drops
will find their way to the mighty ocean
and start all over again.
Categories:
veldt, childhood, rain, water, rain,
Form: Rhyme
War
Were you lost in the war,
tween the Poms n the Boer
Bush Veldt Carbineers,
for sure, one time.
Did death interfere,
enlisted no fear, dumb time,
Were you in the trench,
with the dead oh the stench,
When lice were chewing just fine,
Kaiser Bill’s, machine gunner’s , did you kill,
Just another one of the times.
Time wasting for sure,
when death shuts the door,
The baby does grow yet again,
Poor bugger me, has to learn it all see,
Old enough for death to explain.
Hitler came next and the Japanese threat,
In the death march, you died of the bayonet,
So come back again, like a veteran,
This time, try to explain it.
Don Johnson
Categories:
veldt, adventure, death, death,
Form: Ballade
THEIR LAST DANCE
Said the lion to the spring-bok
Let’s do a turn around the veldt
I won’t laugh at your figure svelte
If my big hairy head you don’t mock.
So they danced there in unison -
Him feeling she was good enough to eat
Her not want wanting to be his meat -
Not stopping till day was done.
At the river they were hot and run down
And stopped to drink for a while.
There she was snatched by a crocodile
And the lion fell in and did drown.
Categories:
veldt, animals
Form: Enclosed Rhyme
I try not to read
other people's stuff,
too much.
Cause when I do,
I'm left with
this disquieting feeling
that it's all been said,
and much better.
That's why I hate
that damned Bukowski
so much.
For days after
I am derivative
and imitative.
I can't live with him.
I can't live without him,
and I drive him out the door,
and his overdue books are taken
back to the library and paid for
with a vengence.
But if I can just keep tromping
across this poetic veldt,
recklessly mixing metaphors
and crushing sentences underhoof
like some adolescent rhino,
I might, in my innocence
of what is proper,
find a clearing by a gentle pool,
where no one's been before,
and I will sink to my knees
in the mud,
drink deeply of waters
that have never been described,
breathe deeply the scent of flowers,
that no one knows,
and I will tell you about it,
and you will come
Categories:
veldt, allegory, imagination, love,
Form: Free verse