Where and when does freedom really come?
I am just a normal guy
who wants to make a living
and I went to university to study
but what is the value of it now?
My country has been given away
and Afrikaner businessmen go along pliable,
with suppressing laws
as if they are not in the highest positions.
Still I have got to pay tax
and my people are brutally murdered
on farmsteads and in the cities,
and even from before Dingaan
it is the story of this country.
of striking at, plundering and robbing
and of piercing, cleaving people open
as if taking, robbing and murder
has been generally adopted by some
from ages past
as if corruption and misdeeds are permitted
and I wonder how to stay in a country
where you work yourself to a standstill
for what belongs to you
which others later want to claim as their own
and where and when does freedom really come?
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
God Is The Only Shepherd To Me (In Answer To L.R.)
Not Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki,
or Jacob Zuma is a shepherd to me
and to them I do not bow my knee
as they are not godly
and their policies and laws rob me,
leave me needy and make me want,
robbing me of my university education,
robbing me of my experience,
depriving me from work,
leaving my people to be killed in cities,
to be murdered on farms
leading me to destruction
and I do not fear the evil
that is unleashed against me,
I do not fear to be without a job,
even a temporary one
I do not resist paying income taxes
to a corrupt government
of which the departments
do not function properly
even if people try to threaten me,
even when my property and two of my cars
have been stolen,
and the South African Police
are too inadequate to find them back
and I am driven into poverty
as the Sheppard in heaven feeds me, supports me
and with His mighty hand shields me.
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Let South Africa be our country again
Let South Africa be our country again
and South Africans from all over the world
stream back,
to dream here like before,
to hope, to wish
of a place
not bordered of by burglar bars
where people can stay free
before God and man.
Let merit and respect be present
and people receive what they deserve
rather than expecting affirmative-action
and mercy from others
and the whole world
and like in the past
let us successfully do our own thing.
Let opportunities really exist
to be free in work,
living and association,
to study in your own language,
let us pull the teeth of the dogs
that rips others apart to rule,
of might that shatters the weak.
Let the animal inside us die
and we really become people
that does not burn each other,
crush and vituperate
and in groups jeering urge the killing on
and do not rob, but work
for the life that we have got.
Let we break the chains
of people ruling
with profit, might
and work people into the ground
and misuse others to gain prosperity.
I am the white Afrikaner that had to fight in war
and now are unemployed and hungry,
while I have a university degree.
I am the black man that without education
have to dig holes and man garbage trucks
and conclude my life in a shack.
I am the coloured that always stand between all groups
and do not know where I belong
and rather gather in gangs.
I am the South African that life
drives down the whole time
and have to pray all the time,
to know how to carry on.
l’Envoi
Still, I am the one that dream
of a country free from crime,
where everybody have equal opportunity,
where rape, corruption
and lawlessness ends
and where South Africa is our country again.
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Whose Country Is This?
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of snakes;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of many waters;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of thieves! !
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of people;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of oil;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of earthquakes!
Whose country is this?
it is a land full of lovers;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of volcanoes!
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of beautiful flowers;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of hansome men;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of beautiful women;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of roses;
Whose country is this?
it is a land ruled only by men;
Whose country is this?
It is a land without rainfall;
Whose country is this?
It is a land ruled by a woman;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of corruption!
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of pirates! !
Whose country is this?
It is a land ruled by law;
Whose country is this?
It is a land controlled by rebels!
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of ice;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of pregnant women;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah!
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of singers;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of troubles;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of war! !
Whose country is this?
It is a land with the biggest cemetery in the wolrd!
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of desert;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of trees;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of pregnant teenagers!
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of timber;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of hatred;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of love;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of care;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of peace;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of smokers!
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of businesses;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of harlots;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of wise people;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of idiots!
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of gold;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of cocoa;
Whose country is this?
It is a alnd full of crabs;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of evil;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of rainfalls;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of ants;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of horses;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of pigs;
Whose country is this?
It is a land full of statues;
Whose country is this?
it is a land full of birds;
And so on, and so forth!
Because nature had made them so as we see them around us,
But the wise and fool live together on this earth.
poem by Edward Kofi Louis
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
South Africa Is Also My Country
From my birth South Africa is my own country
and my people can flee to an island
but my own culture and language stays holy
although this place is not safe,
I still trust on a much higher hand,
from my birth South Africa is my own country.
From my birth South Africa is my own country
even if the struggling government gives me resistance,
do oppress me with unfair laws,
even if nothing can stop the disintegration,
even if I am not safe against the onslaught,
from my birth South Africa is my own country.
From my birth South Africa is my own country,
even if some act with effrontery against my people
I come from a noble heritage,
I am proud on my Afrikaner lineage,
even if people and buildings are set alight,
from my birth South Africa is my own country.
From my birth South Africa is my own country
with no other place I have such a deep bond
and even if here I will never have any job,
I believe in God and a Christian church,
God himself still keeps my ways intact,
from my birth South Africa is my own country.
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Rest With People
Power should rest with people
No one should cause any trouble
It has to be free country with freedom dissent
Not all should be granted or to be taken for assent
Of course power by the people, for the people and of the people
But power not to be cornered by and centered with any single
This gives rise to concentration of wealth by limited persons
They will adopt the ways contrary to for the various reasons
No body should be placed above law
Policy should be crystal cleared and devoid of any flaw
How can hungry nation face the onslaught of any large scale corruption?
When nation is mourning the deaths of farmers with lots of questions
National wealth is taken out of country and placed in secret vault
Still corrupt politicians are no ready to address the faults
Inhuman atrocity committed on peaceful demonstration
And now will power exposed for the power concentration
Why such powers can not be divested by country people?
How can handful of people take caw in hand and impose will?
How can country grant liberty under the guise of democracy?
Only people’s can will prevail and assert the supremacy
Why can’t the traitors be hanged in open?
Why issues relating to corruption can not be reopened?
What is worrying them to expose the nexus and modus operand?
How can country be called republic and clear the stand?
Innocent people can’t be brutally attacked at night
Had they come to interrupt the city life or to fight?
Any lawlessness can’t be tolerated for a second
But brutal behavior must be totally condemned
Where are we heading for future action?
Waiting for corrupt people to come spoil harmony with any reaction?
The country demands explanation from unlawful higher ups
Either they reform themselves or make exit and shut up
poem by Hasmukh Amathalal
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
But how long will this peace last
The night that peace comes
torches are launched into the sky
like stars
to glide hanging to the ground
and as far as I look
I see fireworks near and far,
but how long will this peace last?
Nelson Mandela walks out of jail
and there are people cheering
and dancing from joy
and some think
that now they are totally free,
but how long will this peace last?
His rainbow nation disappears
into the naught
and although the sun still shines
work are reserved for some
and people begin to leave the country
while others from all over Africa stream in
and South Africans are jobless,
but how long will this peace last?
There are incapable people getting positions
and the country goes years back
and murder and killings
are totally out of control
and the police are powerless
to stop it,
but how long will this peace last?
The government takes legal firearms in
while crime spreads wider
and the state are trying to control lives
more and more
and corruption, fraud, rape,
murder and robbery
happens every day,
but how long will this peace last?
l’Envoi
The slaughter of black on white
and robbery are urged on
and reverse racism
talked good
and the country is in chaos
with incapables controlling it
and the dilapidation nobody can stop
but how long will this peace last
before the country
gets another hell of a war?
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Anthem
A country I see inside has partnership with me,
With gladness they invoke an anthem of joy.
A country might describe ours, ours,
The merriment is immense, I destroy like a country.
A country is murdered always by the neighbour,
But will it take over the opposite kind?
A country best is, a masterful work,
A distant dive and gorgeous jelly.
When a country is a nation
This anthem must not begin.
poem by Naveed Akram
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Just able barely to mount a horse and ride about a little in the spring of 1866, my life was threatened daily, and I was forced to go heavily armed. The whole country was then full of militia, robbing, plundering and killing.
quote by Jesse James
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Seldom Won
Independence, liberty and freedom
Bloodlessly won seldom
Stalwarts and leaders had shown wisdom
This all we now read in class rooms
Who will not want to be in free country?
Where it is classless, non racial and sans misery
What else can be dreamed of to lead it happily?
And country is surging ahead steadily
Foreign occupants are taken as cruel and marauders
Their position is that of land hungry and invaders
They might have plundered the country in process
And brutally murdered for gaining the access
All said and done and now they have packed
No more claims on our land is staked
We are fully independent and sovereign
Free from any yoke as independence is regained
What is scenario there after?
Is country leading towards disaster?
Is the freedom struggle really a boom?
Is there any scope for poor with room?
It has tuned into grim reality
It has proved our incompetence and inability
We have pushed country into Dark Age
We failed to look after people and manage
Farmers are coming suicide
Politicians are asking for free ride
Everybody is on rampage and hands are full of corruption
The loot is clearly seen and going on without any interruption
Yes, death is wealth
To take pride for Poor’s health
Where are we today on this freedom day?
Can they take us to peaceful way?
Can we not dream for two square meals?
Can they not strike a simple deal?
They come once in five years
To feed with oasis waters in deaf years
No answer may ever be found
Out economy is claimed to be sound
All well but country is in ill health
Entire country is robbed of its wealth
poem by Hasmukh Amathalal
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he next comes to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination.
Thomas de Quincey in Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts, 1827
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
An elegy for South Africa
Weep South Africa
as you are no longer my country
and I live here
as if I am
from another planet
as part of a small minority
in a country where dark Africa
declares murderers as heroes
and act like barbarians
and dance and scream.
At a time the orange, white and blue
streamed proud over you
and people at work,
school to parliament
bended their knees to God
who was their supreme leader
right through hordes
at blood river,
the onslaught of the British Empire
and with God on our side
we would quarter
for nobody and nothing.
Our own culture flowered,
children went through schools
right through university
to distinguish themselves
and you could even leave the doors unlocked,
could make a living somewhere,
the police were a servant and a friend
and we under our own rule.
How many times our ancestors
tried to teach other people of God,
distributed medicine and food
and we even faced
the communists and Cubans in Angola,
till on a day a man
for the wide world a hero,
out of our own ranks betrayed his brothers
and he laid the whole country lame
and didn’t sell it out,
but rather gave it away.
Today incompetents are everywhere in control
of state departments
right through into the parliament,
money is squandered,
a whole generation
through their own choosing
did not receive any school education,
whites are affirmed and impoverished by the law
and criminals and foreigners stream in
from all over Africa
to start a new life here.
Today another Afrikaner son is slaughtered
(one of more than three thousand) ,
what happens tomorrow and the next day?
[Reference: Murder on Eugene Terreblance. General condition in the country.]
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
You Have No Morals
The preachers of hate claim they hate the west,
While on their moral throne they sit,
Yet they'll take our money when put to the test,
Their ideals are straight from a pit.
If they really hate us why do they stay,
Don't you find it sickeningly funny,
They abuse our system then cause us affray,
But love taking our hard earned money.
Hypocrisy in terrorists will forever remain,
They are cowards every one,
Like their masters they're completely insane,
As for principles truth is they have none.
They have no scruples or moral code,
Their cowardice is for all to see,
Bravery to them is too heavy a load,
They wouldn't know the meaning of free.
To murder innocents is a total disgrace,
It's a cowardly and heinous act,
When you meet your maker he will say to your face,
Hell's where you're heading that's a fact.
The people you claim to represent,
Are very few and far between,
Decent people think you're ideals are bent,
With terrorist scum they wouldn't be seen.
If you truly detest the way we are,
Your choice is crystal clear,
Leave our country and travel afar,
But that thought just fills you with fear.
If you detest us as people the way you claim,
Return to the country you adore,
We will never allow you to achieve your aim,
Your ideals are rotten to the core.
You insult our freedom and our way of life,
Go elsewhere to have your quarrels,
The fact you can take from the people you hate,
Proves to us,
‘' You Have No Morals ‘'
If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination.
quote by Thomas de Quincey
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Cricket World Cup
It is the greatest thrilling event
of our country,
The whole world may not take it seriously
But we take it,
All the activities come to standstill
Office, schools, business centres
Wear deserted look
People go crazy,
They forget everything in the storm of the event
Money flows like water and people are
Oblivious of the fact that three fourth of
Our population is still deprived of
The basic requirements of their life.
I can't understand why these people don't show
The same madness for the eradication of Poverty, corruption, illeteracy, and communalism,
They make so much hue and cry,
Their faces down cast,
when India suffers a defeat.
These elements also cause the country a massive defeat
But their same tongues turn mum
And they take everything as it is
This is not the sign of patriotism,
This is the sign of selfishness.
It shows that we are politically and socially immature,
If we can't show show our wrath at poverty, corruption, communalism and
illiteracy,
We are the most selfish men on the earth.
poem by Mohammad Akmal Nazir
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
National study of Physiology
Living in england just isnt what it used to be
Were living in a messed up parliamentary democracy
And to be telling the truth is now to be constricted
That is the results of my National study of Physiology
My study is of how everybody lives and work
But every movment I take im being followed
I get someone to tell the truth, there killed
And once again the nation is in sorrow
We are still a country with a constitutional monarchy
And the queen just comes out on a special occasion
Just looking on letting parliament close down free will
And still I carry on with my National study of Physiology
It now seems every day there a murder or death on the news
Its either caused by some disagrement from ethnic race’s
Another country have a brand new war
But then straight back to local where its caused by booze’s
And now I think I have my results of my National study of Physiology
And I can now leave with my keen understanding of my bioloigy.
poem by Daniel Laurence
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The deeper right
When my ancestors faced Mzilikazi,
Dingaan and the British
they thought of no honour
or heroic deeds
while spears and rifle barrels
gleamed in the morning sun
and their eyes were set on You
and with the Bible in the hand
they wanted to convert heathen
and to make impressions in this land,
but somehow
my people were murdered by barbarians
and covetous people,
the Godly call was lost
and survival went into their very souls
to make laws for their own protection.
Still in our simplicity
we tried to stay with You
and now I ask that our property
remain our own,
for the oppression to be gone
so that the sun can shine over us as well
and we also can have a life
and if they that sit in the highest chairs
still want to deny
the deeper right that belongs to us,
do not want to honour You,
further want to trample us
and try to indoctrinate
it compels me to ask:
that You let the broom loose
which Your prophet had predicted
and wipe this continent clean from end to end
and bring salvation to us.
[Reference: The deeper right here refers to the right of leading a life.]
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Soldiers Heart
sir
i am no normal person
i was no normal child
brought up in the country
one view in my mind
this country we live in
this place we call home
this is my england
with honour to the thrown
i'd fight for queen and country
if the call was made
i'd fight under the flag
this is my way
people think im crazy
people think im mad
this is no normal heart
it is the heart of the soldier
born and bred a soldier
the title i never took
instead im known as police officer
a baton is my rifle
different colour uniform
my boots the same as all the soldiers
my heart the sames as theirs
so when you ask me my name sir
the reply that you will get
i am but a soldier sir
and that i will never forget
We did not own this country (in answer to Mathews Phosa)
We did not own this country
the Lord gave it to our ancestors
and when they stepped ashore here,
hordes came from eMbo out of the north
and the country also did not belong to them.
Let you see us as intruders,
you yourself are intruders,
a multitude of people out of the tribes
of Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi en Pondo
came from the big lakes under leadership
of chief Dklamini and later chief Nguni.
Our ancestors made a sacred covenant with God
to be able to survive
and still this relationship is held high
as forever God remains the same
and the people that now governs
do not represent me, are proclaiming laws
that are oppressing my Afrikaner people and me,
making me a third rate citizen
and I did not surrender this country
even less have left it
or have neglected any civil duties
and I am waiting on the salvation
coming out of the hand
of the almighty God.
[References: “Bulala Bathakathi” and “ons het ons land verlaat” (we left the country / land) by Mathews Phosa. (The poet Mathews Phosa is the premier of the Orange Free State province) ]
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Patriot
And the rivers shall open for the righteous...
And the rivers shall open for the righteous...
And the rivers shall open for the righteous someday...
I was walking with my brother,
And he wondered, oh how I am.
Said what I believe in my soul
Ain't what I see with my eyes,
And there's no turning back this time.
I am a patriot, and I love my country,
Because my country is all I know.
Wanna be with my family,
People who understand me.
I got no place else to go.
I was walking with my girlfriend.
She looked so fine, I said
"Baby, what's on your mind?"
Said I want to run like the lions
Released from their cages...
Released from the rages
Burning in my soul tonight.
I am a patriot, and I love my country,
Because my country is all I know.
And I ain't no communist,
And I ain't no socialist,
And I ain't no capitalist,
And I ain't no imperialist,
And I ain't no democrat,
Sure ain't no republican either,
I only know one party,
And that is freedom.
I am...I am...I am...
I am a patriot, and I love my country,
Because my country is all I know.
And the rivers shall open for the righteous,
And the rivers shall open for the righteous,
And the rivers shall open for the righteous someday...
Someday...someday
song performed by by Pearl Jam
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Have I got to close the books?
No bad weather,
murderous natives
or even the British Empire
could stop our ancestors
to make a place
their own
at the southern end
of Africa.
Till on a day
some strange people rule
that has no concept
of that which is high and holy,
and tread every thing
with time into ruins
and believe that things are better
while criminals are stealing cars,
robbing banks, murdering people
and steal just where they can
and deceivers sit in parliament
and work are reserved
for only some.
Have I now also
got to close the books,
and leave the country forever
and climb on a jet plane
and make another place
with foreigners
my own
to have a life again?
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!