I take a bus that goes to Vryburg
I take a bus that goes to Vryburg
from Pretoria station
and there are people about me
and we are all caught
in a own world
with destiny on which everything depends
and cornfields flash by
and the bus roars on past some ruins.
I take a bus that goes to Vryburg
and the road winds like a snake,
teenagers are listening to music
in a own world
and I am going to Vryburg to collect a car,
I see a man with wild bushy hair
and there are people about me
who click together
and we drive through the main street of a town,
teenagers are listening to music
and everyone tells something of his or her hurt,
even the younger generation.
I take a bus that goes to Vryburg
and a young girl looks somewhat desperate
with innocent beauty
and we drive through the main street of a town,
and she gets scared and more scared
without any intimidation
and there are people about me
on whom family wait in Vryburg
and she is going to her parent’s home
with innocent beauty,
and she prays to have a life again
and wears plain clothes.
I take a bus that goes to Vryburg
and there are people about me
and she is pregnant and can call nowhere home
and we are all caught
and she is going to her parent’s home
with destiny on which everything depends.
poem by Gert Strydom
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Related quotes
The bus that drives to Vryburg
From Pretoria station
I take a bus that drives to Vryburg
to go and fetch a car.
Cornfields flashes past
and all of the people round me
tells a bit of the things that hurt.
One is going to a funeral because her brother died
and the bus drives on
with the road that stretches out in front of it.
Another is going to her parent’s home
she can find nowhere else to go
and is unmarried and pregnant.
The nearer we get to Vryburg
the more scared she becomes
and the bus drives on.
An Older man has lost his job
and restarts his career in Vryburg.
So everyone of us are caught
our own world with freedom that always stays away
and fate from which everything hangs
and I wonder when everybody in this country
will ever get a Vryburg.
[Vryburg=> The name of a city in the Northern Cape province. Meaning place of freedom or free city.]
poem by Gert Strydom
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Grandma Lenie Brand
As one of the pioneers in the Vryburg district
she lived with her husband Danie Brand
(a second cousin of late President Jan Brand
of the Orange Free State Republic)
on the farm Welgemeen.
When her husband passed away in 1938
grandma Lenie
took over the farming
and if work is a gift
she was really blessed in it
as she wielded a pickaxe
digging holes along with her sons
and the labourers
putting up fences, herded cattle
and still at fifty-six
milked cows,
if the workers did not turn up.
Today you would not expect this
of a fine woman,
who was really religious
farming by herself
in the years
just before the Second World War
and she was one of the esteemed
farmers in the Vryburg district
and she bought a Willis motorcar
and later a model t-Ford,
with which the family travelled to Vryburg
to do they’re shopping.
Grandma Lenie was known
for her philanthropy
and her willingness to help,
lived as if every day
was a deed of love,
was quite strict,
but also really fair
and still I remember
how she looked at me with shining eyes.
poem by Gert Strydom
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Grandpa Danie Brand [2]
After taking part
as a youngster of sixteen
in the second Anglo-Boer war
where he had to spend nights in the open veldt
fired so much on the British
that his hands were full of blisters
from the rifle
of which the barrel got white hot
he married Lenie Swanepoel in 1918,
was really in love with her
and from 1926 he farmed on the farm Welgemeen
near to Steekdoorns in the Vryburg district
where he himself build his own homestead
from Josef’s stone and put up fences
and turned the wild veldt
into a viable farm.
Grandpa Danie did not have time
to sit on the porch,
as it goes with farming,
work took his attention constantly
and before early morning light
he was already in the fields
or at the diary busy with the cows
but was held in high esteem by the labourers
although he was strict.
On a day grandpa Danie
visited another farmer
to buy Afrikaner cattle from him
and while they walked into the lounge
of the other farmer’s house
he lit his pipe
whereupon the other farmer said to him:
“Mister Brand, I do not allow anybody
to smoke in my house”
and it was a big embarrassment to him,
so much so that while he was riding home on his horse,
busy driving the cattle with his workers
he stopped at a big rock
that rose into the air
and knocked his pipe against it
causing it to break in two pieces
and it was also the last time
that grandpa Danie did smoke.
When he got appendicitis
and his appendix erupted
grandma Lenie took great care of him
nursing him back to health
but he continually got pain
when he ate maize
and his brother Frans
who lived in Johannesburg
convinced him
to have a appendectomy
whereupon dressed in his black coat
grandpa Danie left for the hospital in Vryburg
and at the hospital
grandpa Danie got inflammation
and died from the operation wound
that got septic,
in a time before antibiotics
was discovered.
poem by Gert Strydom
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What's wrong with our world?
Why are people abused
Why are people shot
Why do people commit suicide
Why are people anorexic and bulimic
Why do people care more about money than family
Why do people call themselves fat or ugly
Why are kids kidnapped and killed
Why do people die
Why do people tell you they love you and take it back
Why do people hurt each other
Why are people raped
Why do people cut themselves
Why do people hate their lives
Why do teenagers get pregnant
Why do people call each other names
Why are people raciest
Why are people depressed
Why are people put in mental hospitals
Why do peole do drugs
Why do people cuss
Why do people not care what happens to them
Why do people care what others think of them
What's wrong with our world
poem by Allison Boyles
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Many Say Our Life's Journey
Many say our life's journey is fashioned from the life choices we make
That due to poor decisions the wrong road we do take
But assumptions to make to some people do come easily
The people who discount what is known as life's destiny,
The child born of parents living in poverty
Disadvantaged from birth what life choice has she or he?
Homeless as teenagers with little to eat
On the dingy sidewalks of Poverty Street
Life choices not for those of the poor streets of town
For most from there life's journey never leads to renown
Homeless as teenagers they turn to drugs and crime
And like their parents before them serve many years of jail time
Life choices are not for everyone it does seem to me
Though with me on this one many would disagree.
poem by Francis Duggan
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People
People fly people flee
People clam and say it wasnt me
People fish people beef
People arm to teeth
Yes, youve got people on the tube
Walking on the moon
People at the bottom of the sea
People in tombs
People in igloos
Even a tribe of pygmies
People are the main spring
Turning the world around
People, theyre the main spring
Spinning this world upside down
People sun people toast
People tire shile other people smoke
People bowl people rock
People pay to see two people box
Watch me face me
Dress me baby me
Phone me wire me
House me bug me fire me
People are the main spring
Spinning the world around
People, theyre the main spring
Turning this world inside out
song performed by by King Crimson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Too Many People
(tennant/lowe)
-------------------
I sometimes think that Im too many people
Too many people, too many people
I sometimes think that Im too many people
Too many people, too many people at once
The husband or the hedonist
The businessman or the communist
The artist or the showbiz creep
The lover or the nervous geek
The question of identity is one thats always haunted me
Whoever I decide to be depends on who is with me
I sometimes think that Im too many people
Too many people, too many people
I sometimes think that Im too many people
Too many people, too many people at once
The tactless twit putting his foot in it
Or the sensitive soul whos a role model
The urban jet setter - never at home
Or the country recluse - just leave me alone
Extrovert or introvert
Love is kind, and love hurts
Rebellion or conformity
What is my identity?
I sometimes think that Im too many people
Too many people, too many people
I sometimes think that Im too many people
Too many people, too many people at once
The intellectual and bon-viveur
Or the naive simpleton, so immature
A devoted son and family man
Or the wicked uncle who doesnt give a damn
How often these have tempted me
The question of identity depends on what Im meant to be
I sometimes think that Im too many people
Too many people, too many people
I sometimes think that Im too many people
Too many people, too many people at once
I sometimes think that Im too many people
Too many people, too many people
I sometimes think that Im too many people
Too many people, too many people at once
song performed by by Pet Shop Boys
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Zimbabwe frightened you
Zimbabwe frightened you,
Zimbabwe where we could be alone
and in a way I felt at home.
The dark black faces,
the savagery, hunger
and wretched poverty
were more than you could take.
You panicked thinking
that the unruly young teenagers
and so-called war veterans
would not just drive
the farmers away,
but were sharpening
their Panga-blades
even for white tourists.
Everywhere you looked,
you saw death, destruction
and black rule taking its toll
and the ever hungry
begging people
was like a prophecy
of what in the future
may be waiting for us
at home.
Visiting the places
we had dreamed of,
the Zimbabwe ruins,
Mana pools, Kariba lake
and the Victoria falls
was like a nightmare to you.
Even the African art carvings
of people and animals
and rural paintings
of the Ndebele people
hardly caught your eye
and you would rather die
than stay a day longer.
African dancers screaming
around a fire
and dancing like shadows
on the beat
of ancient drums
drove the fear home,
so that you wanted to get into the car.
[References: To Minette, of whom there is just memories. You Hated Spain by Ted Hughes.]
poem by Gert Strydom
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Billy Joel's Innocent Man
(for a friend somewhere, i am dedicating this song)
Some people stay far away from the door
If there's a chance of it opening up
They hear a voice in the hall outside
And hope that it just passes by
Some people live with the fear of a touch
And the anger of having been a fool
They will not listen to anyone
So nobody tells them a lie
I know you're only protecting yourself
I know you're thinking of somebody else
Someone who hurt you
But I'm not above
Making up for the love
You've been denying you could ever feel
I'm not above doing anything
To restore your faith if I can
Some people see through the eyes of the old
Before they ever get a look at the young
I'm only willing to hear you cry
Because I am an innocent man
I am an innocent man
Oh yes I am
Some people say they will never believe
Another promise they hear in the dark
Because they only remember too well
They heard somebody tell them before
Some people sleep all alone every night
Instead of taking a lover to bed
Some people find that it's easier to hate
Than to wait anymore
I know you don't want to hear what I say
I know you're gonna keep turning away
But I've been there and if I can survive
I can keep you alive
I'm not above going through it again
I've not above being cool for a while
If you're cruel to me
I'll understand
Some people run from a possible fight
Some people figure they can never win
And although this is a fight I can lose
The accused is an innocent man
I am an innocent man
Oh yes I am
An innocent man
You know you only hurt yourself out of spite
I guess you'd rather be a martyr tonight
That's your decision
But I'm not below
Anybody I know
If there's a chance of resurrecting a love
I'm not above going back to the start
To find out where the heartache began
Some people hope for a miracle cure
Some people just accept the world as it is
But I'm not willing to lay down and die
Because I am an innocent man
I am an innocent man
Oh yes
I am
An innocent man
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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People From Bad Homes
People from bad homes
Dont have the time
To look things over
Make up their minds
People from good homes
Dnt have the minds
To care for bad homes
Dont have the time
Home is the main line
Cant take the plain
Those people have notions
Play out this game
Stand on your own line
Stand high above
These people of caution
Trouble to love
Me I got no home
Just main street and wine
No one to hussle no one to jive
Me and my prospects just having a ball
Having the best time but nothing at all
Home is the main line
Cant take the plain
Those people have notions
Play out this game
Stand on your own line
Stand high above
These people of caution
Trouble to love
Home is the main line
Cant take the plain
Those people have notions
Play out this game
Stand on your own line
Stand high above
These people of caution
Trouble to love
Oh yeah
song performed by by David Bowie
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Letter In The Mail
If I could go down now
While the whole town is sleeping
See the sun creeping up on the hill
I know the river and the railroad
Would run through the valley still
I guess it never was much to look at
Just a one-horse town
The kind of place young people want to leave today
Store fronts pretty much boarded up
Main street pretty much closed down
The church bell still rings on sunday
Old folks still go
The young ones listen on the radio
Saturday night nothing but a stray dog running wild
Like nobodys child
And little by little, light after light
Thats how it died
They say you never go home again
Thats no lie
Its like a letter in the mail
To a brother in jail
Its a matter of time
Until you can do a little bit better time
It used to be part of the heartland
Awful proud and strong
But deep, deep down peaceful and serene
When people used to talk about the country
Thats what they used to mean
I might go down come the weekend
Go on my own
Drop off annie and the baby
Maybe drive alone
Pay my last respects to a time
That has all but gone
We said, mama come look at the mountain
Fire in the sky
Its lit up like the fourth of july
The mill burning down
The jobs leaving town
The trains rolling by
And little by little, light after light
Thats how it died
They say you never go home again
Thats no lie
Its just a letter in the mail
To a brother in jail
Its a matter of time
Until you can do a little bit better time
song performed by by James Taylor
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Take Your Guns To Town
On the eastern highway we ride
Windshield wipers disperse the rain from the sky
Whats left is ivy and vine
All the letters Id sent back home
Never express the idea of how a young man
Can be so far from home
Take your guns to town
Dont take your guns to town
Take your guns to town
Dont take your guns to town
Stumble down main street alone
Just gotten home with my hand on the phone
I was drinking alone on the quilted (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? )
Take your guns to town
Dont take your guns to town
Take your guns to town
Dont take your guns to town
song performed by by Whiskeytown
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Our Small Town
Love going for walks around town
A small town a holler from the big city
The many old building lining the main street
Which by the way isn't main street that's a block away
From the small library to the high school a jot to get to
The sidewalks resemble the old boardwalks from yesteryear
The shops vary as the street winds to the highway
The country air blows thru the street full of manure
Good ole air, they say around here
The small diner with the local farmers dwell at
Talking of this year's events from farming to politics
The ladies at the sew shop talking gossip
It's amazing how time don't change as years pass
Every year the town picnic to the 4th July jamboree
To the harvest dance and everything in between
Small town people living the old time ways
Wishing every town was as good as it
Walking thru saying hey to neighbors all around
Can make everyday a good day
Seeing people in the park enjoying the kids play
The banner welcoming you to our small town
Small town America, loving it, living it
poem by Michael Peterson
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Power To The People
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
Say you want a revolution
We better get on right away
Well you get on your feet
And out on the street
Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
A million workers working for nothing
You better give em what they really own
We got to put you down
When we come into town
Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
I gotta ask you comrades and brothers
How do you treat you own woman back home
She got to be herself
So she can free herself
Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
Now, now, now, now
Oh well, power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
Yeah, power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
song performed by by Lennon John
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Main Street Eyes
This whole country is scared of failure.
My head keeps trying to sell me ambition.
But in my heart, I want self-respect.
Theres a conflict.
Boy, I feel so outgunned today
But Ill get up and fight back, anyway
You and I aare not huge mainstream stars
But unlike them, were really what we are
We got main street eyes
Watchin as the big boys roll by
Under rotten television skies
We got main street eyes
I saw a kitten squashed in the street
I read about a plastic surgeon and his art collection.
We are played for suckers all the time
Phony rock and roll
Its a crime
I dont want to dip myself in trash
I dont want to give myself for cash
We got main street eyes
Tryin to do whats decent with our lives
Under funny television skies
We got main street eyes
Walkin around sometimes
I see a tension under the surface
People are just about ready to explode.
So hold me, and trust me
I love you, dont worry.
Keep your main street eyes
Keep your main street eyes
Keep your main street eyes
Eyes
Eyes
song performed by by Iggy Pop
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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When Did Youth Go?
When did I stop being a teenager?
When did I stop listening to the radio
from midnight until 2 or 3 a.m. weeknights?
Why was teenage music so empowering?
Why were we so absorbed with the music?
Music which really rocked our wild souls?
Music we danced at local teenage disco too.
Music we drove our parents or first cars too.
Music we drank beer or spirits or partied too.
It seemed we could not live without music.
It seemed we could not meet without music.
It seemed our dreams lived within the beat of music.
Music was part of the fuel which drove our souls.
Music was part of the weekend ever speeding by.
Music was magic drumbeat of hot midnight parties.
Where is the large rocking crowd going?
Where are all the friendly teenagers going?
Where are all those old friends going?
Where where is large trendy rocking crowd going?
Where where are all the friendly teenagers going?
Where where are all those good old friends going?
Suddenly those wild unending party days are over.
Suddenly those exciting unending teenage years are over.
Suddenly those pubs full of our friends are empty.
Suddenly they all suddenly left town.
Suddenly they are all no longer around.
Suddenly they are all in places we don't go.
Suddenly they all suddenly left the old home town.
Suddenly they are all suddenly no longer around.
Suddenly they are all in places we don't know or go.
Where did those teenage years quietly go?
Those teenage friends I used to know?
Where did they all suddenly go?
Where did those teenage years quietly creeping go?
Those lost teenage friends I once upon a time did know?
Where did they all suddenly go exiting a vanishing show?
poem by Terence George Craddock
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Ruins
Its so quiet in the ruins walking though the old town
Stones crumbling under my feet I see smoke for miles around
Oh its enough to make you weep, all that remains of the main street
Up in the park on sunday, dogs chasing and the children played
Old man with his head down, cant see nothing more around...no
But he remembers how it used to be, back in the old days,
So nice to see you coming back in this town again
Its nice to see a friendly face come peeping through having tea
In the afternoon, so nice to see you coming back in this town again...
Ah but its all changed winter turned on a man
Came down on day when no-one was looking and it
Stole away the land, people running scared, losing hands
Dodging shadows of falling sand, buildings standing like empty shells
And nobody...helping no-one else
Young child with his hands high, aint able to see no reason why...no
But he remembers how it used to be, back in the old days,
So nice to see you coming back in this town again
Its nice to see a friendly face come peeping through
Youd better know what youre going through now
You came back here to find your home is a black horizon
That you dont recognize, evil destruction has taken everything
Youd better walk on the side while youre still walking
Just keep on walking on down the street keep your distance
From the people you meet. oh lord and youd better watch your eyes
cause if smoke gets in them, baby you wont rise again.
Wheres it leading to freedom at what cost
People needing more and more and its all getting lost
I want back, I want back
Back to the time when the earth was green
And there was no high walls and the sea was clean
Dont stop that sun to shine, its not yours or mine...no.
song performed by by Cat Stevens
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Comin Home
Words and music by bob seger
Passed the old church on the edge of town
Trailways bus was right on time
Passed your uncles store on main street
His old truck was parked outside
Everything seemed so much larger then
This old town has hardly grown
Has it really been ten long years
Now youre finally comin home
Comin home
Youve been gone so very long
Comin home
Youll just say youre comin home
You left your hometown for the city lights
You were young and you were strong
Lots of traffic lots of sleepless nights
Lots of dreams that all went wrong
Youll just tell them what they want to hear
How you took the place by storm
You wont tell them how you lost it all
Youll just say youre comin home
Comin home
You grew tired of being alone
Comin home
Youll just say youre comin home
song performed by by Bob Seger
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Main Street
(For S.M.L.)
I like to look at the blossomy track of the moon upon the sea,
But it isn't half so fine a sight as Main Street used to be
When it all was covered over with a couple of feet of snow,
And over the crisp and radiant road the ringing sleighs would go.
Now, Main Street bordered with autumn leaves, it was a pleasant thing,
And its gutters were gay with dandelions early in the Spring;
I like to think of it white with frost or dusty in the heat,
Because I think it is humaner than any other street.
A city street that is busy and wide is ground by a thousand wheels,
And a burden of traffic on its breast is all it ever feels:
It is dully conscious of weight and speed and of work that never ends,
But it cannot be human like Main Street, and recognise its friends.
There were only about a hundred teams on Main Street in a day,
And twenty or thirty people, I guess, and some children out to play.
And there wasn't a wagon or buggy, or a man or a girl or a boy
That Main Street didn't remember, and somehow seem to enjoy.
The truck and the motor and trolley car and the elevated train
They make the weary city street reverberate with pain:
But there is yet an echo left deep down within my heart
Of the music the Main Street cobblestones made beneath a butcher's cart.
God be thanked for the Milky Way that runs across the sky,
That's the path that my feet would tread whenever I have to die.
Some folks call it a Silver Sword, and some a Pearly Crown,
But the only thing I think it is, is Main Street, Heaventown.
poem by Joyce Kilmer
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Back Home
(dieter bohlen)
Producer for bonnie: dieter bohlen
Recorded in 1994, bonnies last single on the hansa label. this single was to promote the comeback singles collection 90-94. lyrics taken from careful listening.
I dream of home again
A thousand voices call to me
A cry that splits the night
Woke up the soul inside my memories
I chose to walk alone
To search and find my destiny
So many lonesome roads
Lead me away from where I long to be
When I awake and see a cold and empty room
I sit alone and think of places I once knew
The friends that I had loved and left behind
Oh, how could I have been so blind?
Back home
Where all the love is that I need
Where all my family waits for me
Back home
I close my eyes and I can see
Where the river meets the sea
Back home
There is no better place than home for me
cause home is where Ill find my destiny
Im going home again and I just cant wait to see
The folks that I have missed
A mothers tender kiss, so soft, so sweet
Ill hold her in my arms, like Id never let her go
My familys my home and I will tell them that I love them so
Oh I know Ive been away so very long
That I hurt you when I left and I was wrong
And I see that home is where my heart belongs
So hang on heart, cause her I come
Back home
Where all the love is that I need
Where all my family waits for me
Back home
I close my eyes and I can see
Where the river meets the sea
Back home
There is no better place than home for me
cause home is where Ill find my destiny
Back home
Where all the love is that I need
Where all my family waits for me
Back home
I close my eyes and I can see
Where the river meets the sea
Back home
There is no better place than home for me
cause home is where Ill find my destiny
Back home
song performed by by Bonnie Tyler
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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