Tag: poems

A lifetime lived in just one year
At least that’s how it seems to me
And what began with clouds of fear
Now ends in luminosity
I would not call it chance or fate
I simply call it thirty eight

I travelled into dragon’s lairs
To fairest capes and cactus plains
I visited the land of bears
And markets hid in dusty lanes
I saw creation, small and great
I roamed the globe to thirty eight

In matters of the heart I found
That like a drum with changing beat
I had to find my solid ground
Before I danced with happy feet
I cannot say the road’s been straight
I wound my way to thirty eight

The call of words was ever strong
The poet-scholar dipped his quill
The flow of ink was short and long
The script an act of wisp and will
I say to live is to create
I know it’s true at thirty eight

The dusk of winter brings goodbyes
As I prepare to take my leave
From gilded halls and lofty spires
To conjure up fresh city dreams
I know that it is not too late
I start again at thirty eight

Wayne Visser © 2017

Book

Life in Transit: Favourite Travel & Tribute Poems

This creative collection, now in its 2nd edition, brings together travel and tribute poems by Wayne Visser. The anthology pays tribute to the likes of Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, Barack Obama, Antoni Gaudí & Leonardo da Vinci, and reflects on travels ranging from China and South Africa to Ecuador and Russia. Life is lived in the in-between / In transit / Between coming and going / Between staying and moving on / Between here and there / And what we call home / What we call settled or contented / Is merely a resting place / A station for refuelling / A nexus for reconnecting / A junction for changing direction. Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

The scattered seeds of history
Lie buried in the desert shade
And watered by the crescent moon
Rise up to form a sickle blade

Minarets and sacred domes
Caravans and loving homes
Maiden towers, rising blocks
Tireless cranes and bustling docks

The past now seems a distant shore
The present rides an oil-slick tide
And as the trade winds bluff and blow
The city chugs and churns with pride

Wayne Visser © 2017

Book

Life in Transit: Favourite Travel & Tribute Poems

This creative collection, now in its 2nd edition, brings together travel and tribute poems by Wayne Visser. The anthology pays tribute to the likes of Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, Barack Obama, Antoni Gaudí & Leonardo da Vinci, and reflects on travels ranging from China and South Africa to Ecuador and Russia. Life is lived in the in-between / In transit / Between coming and going / Between staying and moving on / Between here and there / And what we call home / What we call settled or contented / Is merely a resting place / A station for refuelling / A nexus for reconnecting / A junction for changing direction. Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

Tribute to Wendy Cope

I’ve met a poet or two
While tucked under the covers
Or soaking in the tub
With bubble dreams of lovers

And sometimes in the park
I’ve heard them softly giggle
Or fumbling in the dark
I’ve felt their word-worms wriggle

But giddy-gum delight
Watch me do a jiggly jive
Upon this hum-drum night
I met a poet still alive!

Her famous biting wit
With which she’s known to poke
Is wicked when it’s writ
But wickeder when spoke

Some say that she’s besotted
Her words are strung like rope
But whether straight or knotted
You’re bound to like Ms Cope

Wayne Visser © 2017

Book

Life in Transit: Favourite Travel & Tribute Poems

This creative collection, now in its 2nd edition, brings together travel and tribute poems by Wayne Visser. The anthology pays tribute to the likes of Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, Barack Obama, Antoni Gaudí & Leonardo da Vinci, and reflects on travels ranging from China and South Africa to Ecuador and Russia. Life is lived in the in-between / In transit / Between coming and going / Between staying and moving on / Between here and there / And what we call home / What we call settled or contented / Is merely a resting place / A station for refuelling / A nexus for reconnecting / A junction for changing direction. Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

Commemorating Barack Obama’s 2009 Inauguration

This day
Is not just any day
It is a day of days
A day of a lifetime
An epoch making day
At a time that cries out
For new beginnings

This day
Is a watershed day
A day that separates
Yesterday from today
And today from tomorrow
On a mindless march of days
That needed breaking

This day
Is a day to be marked
As something remarkable
A day to be celebrated
As something joyful
A day to be remembered
As something historic

This day
Is a tribute to the past
With its sacrifices of so many
A blessing for the present
Amidst looming clouds of despair
And a vision for the future
Welcomed with an open hand

This day
Is not the struggle’s end
But the journey’s beginning
It is not the death of prejudice
But the life of possibility
It is not the end of nights
But the start of days

This day
Is not so much a forging ahead
As a long overdue catching up
With changes at last
That begin to give life
To time-honoured ideals
And flickering hopes

This day
Is a day of coming together
When power meets responsibility
And rhetoric meets action
It is a day of empowerment
When the voiceless are heard
And the marginal become mainstream

This day
Is a day of reconciliation
When the past is laid to rest
And the future is awakening
It is a day of prodigals
When the lost find their way home
And a nation rejoins the world

Wayne Visser © 2017

Book

Life in Transit: Favourite Travel & Tribute Poems

This creative collection, now in its 2nd edition, brings together travel and tribute poems by Wayne Visser. The anthology pays tribute to the likes of Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, Barack Obama, Antoni Gaudí & Leonardo da Vinci, and reflects on travels ranging from China and South Africa to Ecuador and Russia. Life is lived in the in-between / In transit / Between coming and going / Between staying and moving on / Between here and there / And what we call home / What we call settled or contented / Is merely a resting place / A station for refuelling / A nexus for reconnecting / A junction for changing direction. Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

This moment is marked on my journey of days
As I wander the forest of shadowy ways
With my feet on the path in the moon-dappled light
And my eyes on the stars in the cloud-blotted night

The treasure I found in this buried year’s chest
Was the knowledge I gained from philosophy’s quest
Which was further enriched by my travels from home
To the wilderness delta and temples of stone

The story untold is of dreams to fulfil
Of my life as an artist with parchment and quill
By the light of the candle of love in my heart
And the call of adventure to make a new start

Wayne Visser © 2017

Book

Life in Transit: Favourite Travel & Tribute Poems

This creative collection, now in its 2nd edition, brings together travel and tribute poems by Wayne Visser. The anthology pays tribute to the likes of Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, Barack Obama, Antoni Gaudí & Leonardo da Vinci, and reflects on travels ranging from China and South Africa to Ecuador and Russia. Life is lived in the in-between / In transit / Between coming and going / Between staying and moving on / Between here and there / And what we call home / What we call settled or contented / Is merely a resting place / A station for refuelling / A nexus for reconnecting / A junction for changing direction. Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

A Tribute to China

You are the mighty dragon
Whose history is lost in the mists of time
Shrouded in mystery and enchantment
And breathing fire

Your dragon emperors
Ruled the endless skies and earth
With flaming tongue and snaking tail
And armoured scales

The dragon flies again
Awaking from its night of red dreams
Craving the horded treasures of the West
And rising like a golden sun

Waxing like a silver moon
Shining the ancient wisdom of the East
Trailing iridescent sparks of change
The phoenix flies again

Cocooned in silk
And flowing with ripples of water
Through peaceful rockeries and gardens
Were your phoenix empresses

Singing spells
And rising in a blaze of coloured feathers
From the ashes of grey modernity
You are the mystical phoenix

Wayne Visser © 2017

Book

Life in Transit: Favourite Travel & Tribute Poems

This creative collection, now in its 2nd edition, brings together travel and tribute poems by Wayne Visser. The anthology pays tribute to the likes of Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, Barack Obama, Antoni Gaudí & Leonardo da Vinci, and reflects on travels ranging from China and South Africa to Ecuador and Russia. Life is lived in the in-between / In transit / Between coming and going / Between staying and moving on / Between here and there / And what we call home / What we call settled or contented / Is merely a resting place / A station for refuelling / A nexus for reconnecting / A junction for changing direction. Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

In the end
Life is cruel
It takes
Too much
Too soon
It gives
Too little
Too late.

Do not
Be fooled
Every ending
Is not
A new beginning
Some endings
Are just
The end.

Life is cruel
In the end
It cuts
Too deep
Too quick
It hurts
Too much
Too long.

Still
It is true
Every ending
Had a bright beginning
And a middle
Rich
With meaning
To the end.

Life is cruel
In the end
It tears
All apart
All away
It grinds
All before
All to dust.

All we can do
Is celebrate
The beginning
Cherish
The middle
And live
Fully
To the end.

Wayne Visser © 2017

Book

Life in Transit: Favourite Travel & Tribute Poems

This creative collection, now in its 2nd edition, brings together travel and tribute poems by Wayne Visser. The anthology pays tribute to the likes of Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, Barack Obama, Antoni Gaudí & Leonardo da Vinci, and reflects on travels ranging from China and South Africa to Ecuador and Russia. Life is lived in the in-between / In transit / Between coming and going / Between staying and moving on / Between here and there / And what we call home / What we call settled or contented / Is merely a resting place / A station for refuelling / A nexus for reconnecting / A junction for changing direction. Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

A Tribute to Marie Steyn

I know a special lady
And you may know her too
She’s just so vriendelik
What’s a guy to do!

I know a gentle lady
She is a Kaapse nooi
I would not tell a lie
Sy’s so vreeslik mooi!

I know a clever lady
She has great taste in men
You ask me how I know?
I am one of them!

I know a lekker lady
She always makes me smile
She tells such rude grappe
With consummate style!

I know a super lady
She doesn’t mince her words
She’ll say just what she thinks:
‘Jong! That’s for the birds!’

I know a loving lady
She cares from start to end
What’s more, kan jy dit glo?
Sy’s my beste friend

Wayne Visser © 2017

Book

Life in Transit: Favourite Travel & Tribute Poems

This creative collection, now in its 2nd edition, brings together travel and tribute poems by Wayne Visser. The anthology pays tribute to the likes of Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, Barack Obama, Antoni Gaudí & Leonardo da Vinci, and reflects on travels ranging from China and South Africa to Ecuador and Russia. Life is lived in the in-between / In transit / Between coming and going / Between staying and moving on / Between here and there / And what we call home / What we call settled or contented / Is merely a resting place / A station for refuelling / A nexus for reconnecting / A junction for changing direction. Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

A Tribute to Galapagos, Ecuador

Genesis islands, straddling Hades and Eden
Ancient follies forged in the fiery mists of time
Land of contortion between struggle and freedom
An ode to creation and its ebb-flowing rhyme

Puzzle of the Pacific, of cold blood and fire
A cauldron of species, our map of history
Giant tortoises tread with evolution’s desire
Our past leaves a trail, our future a mystery

Saludo! To Darwin and his unholy treason

Wayne Visser © 2017

Book

Life in Transit: Favourite Travel & Tribute Poems

This creative collection, now in its 2nd edition, brings together travel and tribute poems by Wayne Visser. The anthology pays tribute to the likes of Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, Barack Obama, Antoni Gaudí & Leonardo da Vinci, and reflects on travels ranging from China and South Africa to Ecuador and Russia. Life is lived in the in-between / In transit / Between coming and going / Between staying and moving on / Between here and there / And what we call home / What we call settled or contented / Is merely a resting place / A station for refuelling / A nexus for reconnecting / A junction for changing direction. Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

I am thirty six
And in one long short year
My world has changed
Expanded
Intensified
With more shades
Of dark and light

I have ascended to summits of hope
And tunnelled through caves of despair
Without giving up

I have skipped across meadows of ecstasy
And waded in swamps of sadness
Without being trapped

I have showered under waterfalls of passion
And walked on glaciers of numbness
Without losing heart

I have strolled on beaches of contentment
And battled with tides of disappointment
Without being drowned

Each frontier I cross
Expands my awareness
And deepens my understanding

Each horizon I chase
Widens my experience
And heightens my sensitivity

Each new low I plumb
Lowers my expectations
And raises my beliefs

Each new high I scale
Softens my defences
And hardens my resolve

I am tired
And yet I feel that my reserves
Are being steadily replenished

I am adrift
And yet I sense that the wind
Is blowing in the right direction

I am alone
And yet I seem to be starting
To open my heart to possibility

I am scarred
And yet I am a little more prepared
To contemplate trusting again

I no longer brush away my tears
For they help me to smile
With my eyes

I no longer curse the darkness
For it helps me to pay attention
To the light

I no longer fear the pain
For it helps me to know beauty
More intensely

I no longer hide from uncertainty
For it helps me to cherish moments
Of knowing clarity

I am thirty six
And I have emerged
From the cocoon of self-pity
Bewildered
Relieved
With wings
Still wet and crumpled

Wayne Visser © 2017

Book

Life in Transit: Favourite Travel & Tribute Poems

This creative collection, now in its 2nd edition, brings together travel and tribute poems by Wayne Visser. The anthology pays tribute to the likes of Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, Barack Obama, Antoni Gaudí & Leonardo da Vinci, and reflects on travels ranging from China and South Africa to Ecuador and Russia. Life is lived in the in-between / In transit / Between coming and going / Between staying and moving on / Between here and there / And what we call home / What we call settled or contented / Is merely a resting place / A station for refuelling / A nexus for reconnecting / A junction for changing direction. Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.