Body and Soul

Read my poem HERE and feel free to leave any comments!

Seven II

As you know, I was tagged by Meghna .......to do a meme! Read what a meme is....(pronounced like in "dream")...on a post of 2 days ago......OK, it was REALLY very difficult to decide WHERE to start first, as my time is now very little after starting an IT course today! So, I had to think very fast what I will post, as there are so MANY things I could write about!!, but to limit it to only SEVEN! That was very difficult....I made a list, crossed out, started with another, crossed out again...and then just started with what jumped to my mind!!I will have to do another one and another and another and another and.....wow....
First of all, I do LOVE teaching, as I see teaching as a CALLING and not "just a job"...(like I heard some teachers saying that here in London..) for me it is NOT "just a job!!!!"........My great grandad left Holland to teach in South Africa and I think the "teaching -blood" is running through my veins! Click here to see pictures of the current school. The old school, which was in his very own house, is about 2 km from the current school.
I used to teach Primary and don't think I ever want to teach Secondary......but if I have to.....It will have to be a subject like ICT only, as I do like IT and to incorporate ICT in any aspect of my teaching.
I love reading, I LOVE books...not just "like" it....I have about a library packed away in South Africa and have slowly started to build one again. Children's books....adult books...If I'm teaching, you will always find me in a bookshop, leaving with many books! A book as a present to me...and you will make my day! I also like writing stories. During secondary school, I used to get good marks for creative writing...what we also call "composition"....and I was always eager to get homework in composition....I just loved to let my mind flow....


Poetry!!! On this picture you can see a famous and well-known South African poet...Totius...(pen name) .....J D du Toit....he wrote some fantastic poems, some of them very moving, like the one about the death of his own child, killed by lightning....really an emotional poem! His daughter stood by an open window, when lightning struck and he was there to witness everything...as his poem tells us...read my translated version of his poem at the bottom of the post...

South Africa!!! ........I love my country to bits! I have a passion for South Africa. South Africa will always be THE place to be!! No other country is as beautiful as South Africa. On this picture you can see Simonstown...Cape Town...


And.......of course........if you don't know it by now...you will NEVER know! CHESS!!! I never played it at school. During Primary at the age of about 10, my brother taught me...I got my first chess book at the age of 12 from my one sister.....with Fischer/Spasski games in the back....I do like Bobby Fischer's games.....I played them through as a child as I had no one to play with!! No one in my family wanted to play chess!!...then at Secondary...it was always just BOYS when we were called to play chess...and I felt intimidated by them...no other girls! And the boys...always giving you the "look"...as if they wanna say..."hey...a girl playing chess!! how is that possible!"...I really started to get into chess when at my second school, the Headteacher asked me to start chess.......and I was over the moon! My kids really did well....I left at that school with two teams, each team.... 10 players and two reserves and a lot of Junior children...in South Africa they are Gr1-Gr3 (7-9 year old) kids in line to join the teams later... (If you click on this pic, you will see a good checkmate position, this player's rating is a bit low, he only started playing quite recently, but has picked-up very quickly and sometimes, I really have to be very careful with my moves! We play friendlies and while playing, I try to help him with the closing of his games, as this is where his problem lies at the moment.)

I like the colour red ....although purple-pinkish is also one of my favourites...This top is a beautiful top!
...CATS!! I'm a catlover! Cats are peaceloving animals! They have personalities of their own and they have their own language to speak to you!! Listen to your cat!! and try to understand his language!!

The poem that follows now, is the one Totius wrote about his child. When I have time, I will try to translate it....


O die pyn-gedagte
Totius....(JD du Toit)
O Die pyn-gedagte: My kind is dood! . . .
dit brand soos 'n pyl in my.
Die mense sien daar niks nie van,
en die Here alleen die weet wat ek ly.

Die dae kom en die nagte gaan
die skadu's word lank en weer kort;
die drywerstem van my werk weerklink,
en ek gaan op my kruisweg voort.

Maar daar skiet aldeur 'n pyn in my hart,
so, dat my lewe se glans verdwyn;
Jou kind is dood met 'n vreeslike dood!
En – ek gryp my bors van die pyn.

O Die bliksemgedagte! . . . Ja, lieflingskind,
een straal het jou skone liggaam verskroei,
maar bliksemstrale sonder tal
laat my binneste brand en bloei.
Sy was so teer soos 'n vlindertjie,
sy't lugtig omheen geswerf;
'n asempie wind kon haar vlerkies breek
en – kyk watter dood moes sy sterf!
Hoe weinig die kinders wat so moet sterf,
dis een uit die tienduisend-tal,
en ag, dat dit sy was, en ek moes sien
dat sy dood in my arms val!
O Die pyn-gedagte: My kind is dood! . . .
dit brand soos 'n pyl in my;
die mense die sien daar niks nie van,
en die Here alleen die weet wat ek ly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...as I promised...a translation of the poem!
Read my English translation of the poem HERE ....
Oh the painful thought

That's me...and Ingrid Jonker

........for the rest of the evening....

~~~~~~

This is an Afrikaans poem written by Ingrid Jonker...a brilliant poet of South Africa...follow the link at the bottom to read about her. Some of her poems have been translated in different languages.

~~~~~~~
Madeliefies in Namakwaland
~~~Ingrid Jonker

Waarom luister ons nog

na die antwoorde van die madeliefies

op die wind op die son

wat het geword van die kokkewietjies

Agter die geslote voorkop

waar miskien nog ’n takkie tuimel

van ’n verdrinkte lente

~~~

Agter my gesneuwelde woord

Agter ons verdeelde huis

Agter die hart gesluit teen homself

Agter draadheinings, kampe, lokasies

Agter die stilte waar onbekende tale

val soos klokke by ’n begrafenis
Agter ons verskleurde land

~~~

sit die groen hotnotsgot van die veld

en ons hoor nog verdwaasd

klein blou Namakwaland-madeliefie

iets antwoord, iets glo, iets weet.

Read about Ingrid Jonker HERE in Wikipedia.

Show me the place ...

This poem was written by C Louis Leipoldt, (1880 - 1947) - a South African poet and you can read an English translation here to, translated by Melissa on her blog, link at the bottom too....it is one of our best poets we've had and this poem is one of my favourites too...do read the English one and enjoy it!

WYS MY DIE PLEK

Wys my die plek waar ons saam gestaan het,

Eens, toe jy myne was -

Vroeër, voor jou liefde vir my getaan het,

Vroeër, toe jy myne was.

Kyk, dis dieselfde;

die silwer see

Blink in die sonskyn,

soos lang verlee

Dit eenmaal geblink het,

'n welkomsgroet

Vir ons liefde wat uithou en alles vergoed.

~~~

Wys my die plek waar ons saam gekniel het,

Eens, toe jy myne was -

Vroeër, toe een siel vir ons saam besiel het,

Vroeër, toe jy myne was.

Kyk, dis dieselfde; die hemel, blou,

Lag soos voorheen op my en op jou;

Dit skitter nog altyd 'n welkomsgroet

Vir ons liefde wat uithou en alles vergoed.

~~~

Wys my die plek waar ons saam geloop het,

Eens, toe jy myne was -

Vroeër, toe ons harte so veel gehoop het,

Vroeër, toe jy myne was.

Kyk, dis dieselfde! Net jy nie.

Vra,Wie van ons twee moet die meeste dra ?

Jy wat vergeet het - of ek wat boet

Vir my liefde wat uithou en alles vergoed ?

by C. Louis Leipoldt (ca. 1880 - 1947)

SHOW ME THE PLACE

Show me the place where we stood side by side,

Once, when you were mine -

Earlier, before your love for me died,

Earlier, when you were mine.

Look, it's the same, the silver sea

Shines in the sun's rays, just like before

It once shined,

a welcoming

For our love that endured and everything enhanced.

~~~

Show me the place where we knelt together,

Once, when you were mine -

Earlier, when one soul possessed us,

Earlier, when you were mine.

Look, it's the same, the sky, so blue,

Smiles just as before on me and on you,

It continues to shine as a welcoming

For our love that endures and everything enhances.

~~~

Show me the place where we use to walk,

Once, when you were mine -

Earlier, when our hearts hoped so much,

Earlier, when you were mine.Look, it's the same!

Except for you.

Which one of us has the most to bear ?

You, that has forgotten - or me,

that has to pay

For my love that endures and all enhances ?

Translated by......Melissa here on her blog!

National Poetry day...

As it is National Poetry day in the UK, I would like to post poems of my favourite poet, WC Williams....the theme for Poetry day is "Dreams"....enjoy "The Dream" by John Donne, as well as the two poems of William Carlos Williams!

The Dream
by John Donne
Dear love, for nothing less than thee
Would I have broke this happy dream ;
It was a theme
For reason, much too strong for fantasy.
Therefore thou waked'st me wisely ; yet
My dream thou brokest not, but continued'st it.
Thou art so true that thoughts of thee suffice
To make dreams truths, and fables histories
Enter these arms, for since thou thought'st it best,
Not to dream all my dream, let's act the rest.
As lightning, or a taper's light,
Thine eyes, and not thy noise waked me ;
Yet I thought thee—For thou lovest truth—an angel, at first sight ;
But when I saw thou saw'st my heart,
And knew'st my thoughts beyond an angel's art,
When thou knew'st what I dreamt,
when thou knew'st when
Excess of joy would wake me,
and camest then,
I must confess,
it could not choose but be
Profane, to think thee any thing but thee.
Coming and staying show'd thee, thee,
But rising makes me doubt,
that now
Thou art not thou.
That love is weak where fear's as strong as he ;
'Tis not all spirit, pure and brave,
If mixture it of fear, shame, honour have ;
Perchance as torches, which must ready be,
Men light and put out, so thou deal'st with me ;
Thou camest to kindle,
go'st to come ; then I
Will dream that hope again, but else would die.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Love Song

I lie here thinking of you:
the stain of love
is upon the world!
Yellow, yellow, yellow
it eats into the leaves,
smears with saffron
horned branched the lean
heavily
against a smooth purple sky!
There is no light
only a honey-thick stain
that drips from leaf to leaf
and limb to limb
spoiling the colors
of the whole world-
you far off there under
the wine-red selvage of the west!

~~~William Carlos Williams

As the cat

As the cat
climbed over
the top of
the jamcloset
first the right
forefoot
carefully
then the hind
stepped down
into the pit of
the empty
flowerpot
~~~William Carlos Williams


Friendships come and Friendships go
Like wave upon the sand
Like day and night
Like birds in flight
Like snowflakes when they land
But you and I are something else
Our friendship's here to stay
Like weeds and rocks and dirty socks
It never goes away!

A friend is a person
to laugh and cry with,
An inspiration,
Someone who lends a helping hand,
though friends may not be forever,
And they may not end up together,
the memories of a true friendship will
last forever.
A friend is not a shadow
nor a servant
But someone who hold
a piece of a person in his heart.
Someone who shares a smile,
Someone who brightens up your day
What makes a person a friend?
Is by saying your Love
will stay.
Renee donna Bufete

This is just to say

Landcape with the Fall of Icarus

Willimas Carlos Williams


According to Brueghel

when Icarus fell it was spring
a farmer was ploughing

his field

the whole pageantry
of the year

was awake tingling

with itself
sweating in the sun

that melted the wings' wax
unsignificantly

off the coast there was
a splash

quite unnoticed

this was Icarus drowning




Read the poem about the red wheelbarrow... HERE on my Wordpress-blog where you can find an image of the red wheelbarrow too. This link will open in a new window.

Poetry

On my Wordpress-blog you can find poems in Afrikaans and English and you can also use the tags in the Category-cloud for more poems written by other poets. I've got poems by William Carlos Williams, Poe, etc. on my blog, it's easy to do a search in the search box.


Today, it's my poetry day....if you have a passion for poetry the way I have....you will get your "moods", well, that's what I experience, a mood to read, or a mood to write. I've written a couple, just a couple...but wish I was more talented...where is Mrs Bothma now...or Mrs Wilson!! I loved poetry a lot during secondary school, but I hated all those discussions/analysing....how is it possible to tell exactly what the poet meant in his writing...any person can "read " what the poet wanted to say...according to me, it's like art...no right/wrong....and at school, you have to analyse the poem and get it RIGHT...I disagree! Anyway....I will never tell a child that his view about a poem is wrong. If I am in the mood to write a poem, the words just "flow"...sitting down and then thinking what to write......well, then I'm not in the "right" mood! Leave it till later then ....I associate poetry with flowers. The beauty....they inspire, they open your mind.... a flower resembles perfectness....as is poetry....poetry is your soul, it speaks your mind, your soul, what you feel inside, what you feel about society, what matters to you. Like an artist....a painting....what's inside you, reflects....it tells.....it speaks....
I hope you enjoy these quotes I've posted here and click HEREto read more quotes and enjoy!

More DailyBible quotes here.

Love

I want to continue my Friday's mood....so here goes...

William Morris was an artist too...on the pic here you can see some of his art...


There is so much going on in this world of us...do we ever stop! and think....think about an ant crossing a road...a caterpillar on a leave...honeybee buzzing on a flower......a bird seeking for crumbs....a newborn calf trying to get up.....newborn kittens struggling their way to their mummy's milk......children with Aids! sleeping hungry, crying for their mums....orphans....are we thinking what difference we can make to other people's lives? Let's start thinking how we can alter our lives to make a change to other people's lives, to bring love, joy and happiness to everybody in the world!

William Morris

Love Is Enough

Love is enough:

though the World be a-waning,

And the woods have no voice but the voice of complaining,

Though the sky be too dark for dim eyes to discover
The gold cups and daisies fair blooming thereunder,

Though the hills be held shadows,

and the sea a dark wonder,

And this day draw a veil over all deeds pass'd over,

Yet their hands shall not tremble,

their feet shall not falter;

The void shall not weary,

the fear shall not alter

These lips and these eyes of the loved and the lover.

Morris, William

1834—96, English poet, artist, craftsman, designer, social reformer, and printer. He has long been considered one of the great Victorians and has been called the greatest English designer of the 19th cent. Read more about William Morris here.

Pink and Love---mood

LOVE

Love, I have a few thoughts about love
And I don’t mind sharing them with you.
Love is the hungry vibration of life for fulfilment
Love is the flight of a bee into the flowers of
Spring
Love is life transcending nature and reason, and going
Towards divinity
Love is a charge that powers the current of life and makes it
Flow from man to man
Love is not a game, or a ploy, or a legal contract.
Love is God walking among men, and demanding their worship

Click on the image for a larger view to be able to read...

Love card here

*******************************************************

Edmund Spenser

One day I wrote her name upon the strand

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,

But came the waves and washed it away:

Again I wrote it with a second hand,

But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.

Vain man, said she, that dost in vain assay

A mortal thing so to immortalize!

For I myself shall like to this decay,

And eek my name be wiped out likewise.

Not so (quoth I), let baser things devise

To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:

My verse your virtues rare shall eternize,

And in the heavens write your glorious name;

Where, whenas death shall all the world subdue,

Our love shall live, and later life renew.

HOW DO I LOVE THEE?

How do I love thee?

Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being an Ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints,--

I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life!--

and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.

~~Elizabeth Barrett Browning~~

I had done this poem in Secondary School and has been my favourite since then!

The Highwayman

Chess champions, poems, Jacaranda trees and class tools!

World champions

and

a chess poem

Class Tools

Friday!

Tony! ....

William Blake. 1757–1827

The Tiger

TIGER, tiger, burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?


In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare seize the fire?


And what shoulder and what art

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand and what dread feet?


What the hammer? what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? What dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?


When the stars threw down their spears,

And water'd heaven with their tears,

Did He smile His work to see?

Did He who made the lamb make thee?


Tiger, tiger, burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Friends

The Gift Of Friends
by Karin Schaefer

There are days when

bubbling from us comes

the innocent child within,

who giggles at the little things

and wears a silly grin.

There are days when

melancholy comes to

visit for a while;

the mind feels tired,

the body weak;

we have no strength to smile.

There are days when

joy abundant grabs

a hold of you and me;

wraps us up in all

it's splendor,

lifts us up and sets us free.

There are days when

sorrow wraps us

in its cloak of grief and fear,

'till our hearts ache to the breaking,

'till our eyes can't shed a tear.

There are days when

love bestows us

with its wonderment and light;

with its beauty and its mystery,

its power and its might.

And there are days when

life rewards us

and seems to make amends

by granting us a marvelous gift,

the precious gift of Friends.

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Follow this link!

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Olifants River....just north of Lydenburg! GREAT FUN!
http://www.ingwenyatours.co.za/olifants.php

All the World's a Stage

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages.

At first, the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel

And shining morning face,

creeping like snail Unwillingly to school.

And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress' eyebrow.

Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon's mouth.

And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part.

The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;

His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound.

Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

William Shakespeare

Saturday's poem

To A Butterfly

STAY near me---
do not take thy flight!
A little longer stay in sight!
Much converse do I find I thee,
Historian of my infancy !
Float near me;
do not yet depart!
Dead times revive in thee:
Thou bring'st, gay creature as thou art!
A solemn image to my heart,
My father's family!
Oh! pleasant, pleasant were the days,
The time, when, in our childish plays,
My sister Emmeline and I
Together chased the butterfly!
A very hunter did I rushUpon the prey:---
with leaps and spring
I followed on from brake to bush;
But she, God love her,
feared to brush
The dust from off its wings.

William Wordsworth

Bats...poem

Bats

by Paisley Rekdal

unveil themselves in dark.
They hang, each a jagged,
silken sleeve, from moonlit rafters bright
as polished knives.
They swim the muddled air and keen
like supersonic babies,
the sound we imagine empty wombs might make
in women who can’t fill them up.
A clasp, a scratch, a sigh.
They drink fruit dry.
And wheel, against feverish light flung hard
upon their faces,
in circles that nauseate.
Imagine one at breast or neck,
Patterning a name in driblets of iodine
that spatter your skin stars.
They flutter, shake like mystics.
They materialize. Revelatory
as a stranger’s underthings found tossed
upon the marital bed, you tremble
even at the thought. Asleep,
you tear your fingers
and search the sheets all night.

Owl

Owls are one of my favourite birds, the other favourite is the guinea-fowl. The barn owl in particular, they are very cute. Click on the images to see a larger image, especially the extract from the baby owl book, one of my favourite books too! (btw....i love children's books...) The Owl and the Pussycat is of course my other favourite "owl book", although it is a poem!

http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Tyto&species=alba

Blue poems

Blue Willow

Jody Gladding

A pond will deepen toward the center like a plate
we traced its shallow rim my mother steering
my inner tube past the rushes where I looked
for Moses we said it was a trip around the world
in China we wove through curtains of willow
that tickled our necks let's do that again
and we'd double back idle there lifting
our heads to the green rain
swallows met over us later I dreamed
of flying with them we had all the time
in the world we had the world
how could those trees be weeping?

This is just to say...

I LOVE this poem! by William Carlos Williams

This Is Just to Say

by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten the plums

that were in the ice box

and which you were probably saving for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

I know a place

You can click HERE to read another poem of Wayne in English which he's asked me to translate into Afrikaans. Both poems can be found on this link which will open in a new window.
I've received an email from Wayne with the following message...if you're interested, drop him an email!

“Hello again I thought I'd let you (and your lekker vriende) know that I've launched a
"Poets of Africa" blog - http://poetsofafrica.blogspot.com/.
Afrikaanse digters welkom! Just email me on wayne@waynevisser.com and I will give permission for you to post. Kwa heri Wayne”
http://www.waynevisser.com/


I know a place in Africa…
Inspiring poetry written by Wayne Visser,
a South African currently based in Nottingham, UK.

I know a place in Africa
Where I can feel the sun on my back
And the sand between my barefoot toes
Where I can hear the gulls on the breeze
And the waves crash on the endless shore

I know a place in Africa
Where the mountains touch the skies of blue
And the valleys shelter vines of green
Where the trees spread out a cloth of mauve
And the bushveld wears a coat of beige

I know a place in Africa
Where I can hear the voice of thunder gods
And watch their lightening spears thrown to earth
Where I can breathe the scent of rain clouds
And taste the sweet dew of dusty drops

This is the place of wildness
Of evolution and dinosaurs
Where life began and mankind first stood
Of living fossils and elephants
Where lions roar and springbok herds leap

This is the place of struggle
Of desert plains and thorn trees
Where pathways end and hunters track game
Of horizons and frontiers
Where journeys start and sunsets bleed red

This is the place of freedom
Of exploration and pioneers
Where darkness loomed and light saw us through
Of living legends and miracles
Where daybreak came and hope now shines bright

My heart is at home in Africa
Where the sound of drums beat in my chest
And the songs of time ring in my ears
Where the rainbow mist glows in my eyes
And the smiles of friends make me welcome

My mind is at ease in Africa
Where the people still live close to the soil
And the seasons mark my changing moods
Where the markets hustle with trading
And Creation keeps its own slow time

My soul is at peace in Africa
For her streams bring lifeblood to my veins
And her winds bring healing to my dreams
For when the tale of this land is told
Her destiny and mine are as one

© 2006 Wayne Visser


Something else that's great about South Africa!
South Africa is the only country in the world to have acquired, and subsequently fully dismantled, its nuclear-weapons capability.