poems | Wayne Visser

April 19, 2017

Forty Five

The turn of the seasons, the loop of the sun
Another year over, another begun
A decade ago, I felt barely alive
Now, healthy and happy, I turn forty-five

I’ve searched for new answers to questions of old
I’ve dared to be different and dreamed to be bold
I’ve tickled life’s wonder and kindled love’s spark
I’ve travelled to places that each left their mark

The mountain cathedrals of Peja’s great charm
The hills of Sri Lanka with Buddha-blessed calm
The joining together with Amazon friends
The fresh new beginnings and reconceived ends

The nocturnal sparkle of Moscow’s Red Square
The spices and colours of New Delhi’s flare
The rejuvenation in the fairest of Capes
The call of adventure and shifting of shapes

I’ve weaved webs of words to teach and inspire
I’ve called on our leaders to change or retire
I’ve spoken with students of making a dent
I’ve gone to great cities and learned as I went

The Singapore gardens with green walls of flowers
The Caspian welcome with Baku’s flame towers
The Da Vinci artworks Milano unveils
The Stockholm ice bar with its blue winter’s tales

The waffles of Antwerp and Amsterdam’s eye
Ann Arbor’s giant cookies and trails in the sky
The Tesla electric with still Scarlett pace
The Force reawakens from frontiers of space

I’ve listened to whispers of fate on the breeze
I’ve taken a step on the long walk for trees
I’ve dreamed of a future where waste is no more
I’ve reached for the circle with life as its core

The terrors of Paris; its climate accord
The march of brave migrants across Europe’s ford
The struggles of many show will to survive
I’m counting my blessings; I’ve turned forty-five

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.

April 19, 2017

Love the Landscape of Your Life

A Tribute to Jeanette Hilda Visser (Mom)

Love the landscape of your life – it is shaped for you alone
Trust the terrain on which you tread – its pathways will lead you home

As you pause for breath upon your trail on this Earth,
There is much reason to linger and savour:
The vistas and views, the companions you keep,
The blessings you hold in your favour

And the cairn tall beside you built stone upon stone,
Is the beacon to your adventures and travels:
‘Cross mountain and bushveld, through desert and forest …
And within … as the journey unravels

But tarry not long for the track lies before you,
And the expedition is far from its end:
The mountains they beckon, the trees whisper welcome,
In new lands which await ’round the bend

Love the landscape of your life – it is shaped for you alone
Trust the terrain on which you tread – its pathways will lead you home

Book

Life in Transit: Favourite Travel & Tribute Poems

April 19, 2017

Footprints

Laughing, smiling, making jokes
Dreams, desires, fleeting hopes
Not defined, not quite clear
Not quite far, not quite near
Out of reach, close at hand
Sets of prints upon the sand
Follow now and now to lead
Now to give and now to need
Perhaps in time, in time I’ll know
Where those footprints are to go

Book

Life in Transit: Favourite Travel & Tribute Poems

April 19, 2017

Building Stone Upon Stone

A Tribute to the Centre for Human Ecology in Edinburgh, Scotland

For many moons have gathered now
People from different lands
Around a table carved from wood
Searching to understand
Why we choke the Earth and Sky
The Rivers and the Seas
And why there is injustice still
And social inequity

We’ve travelled over land and sea
And around the jewel of Eire
With its walls of stone and sacred sites
And people to inspire
Our pilgrimage across the hills
Is also one within
For we know: before the world can change
With ourselves we must begin

When we go our different ways
We’ll take all that we’ve learned
And try to realise the better world
For which we yearn
And the Celtic knot may join us still
Through the vision that we share
That all life is connected and
Needs our love and care

We have grown, we have grown
Building stone upon stone
A foundation of hope for tomorrow
We have grown, we have grown
And though our future’s unknown
Every ending is just another beginning

Book

Life in Transit: Favourite Travel & Tribute Poems

April 19, 2017

Orbits

A Tribute to Fiona Moore and Family

For scarce hours, friendly and warm,
Like the smoulder of a wood-burning stove;
Our lives overlapped in sync –
A strange warp of time and space

Banter reverberating around the kitchen,
Like the rhythmic drone of didgeridoo;
Music lacing brick and tile –
A fountain, a mirror-loch, a trickling spring

Tales of travels and rainbow cultures,
Like meridians across the Earth;
Pricks of experiences remembered –
Needles connecting latitudes of energy

Stars shine brightly in the dark Scottish sky,
Like a cosmic dance in step;
Their light winks over the fair Cape in time –
A promise of orbits to cross again soon

Book

Life in Transit: Favourite Travel & Tribute Poems

April 19, 2017

Forty Four

I rise to greet the day on condor wings
Half asleep and half awake
Amidst the fluttering veil
Of Amazonian dreams

I turn to gaze across the landscape past
Part hidden and part revealed
Beneath the carpeted green
Of expeditions trod

I see the cairn where stones of love were placed
Some jagged and some smooth
Upon the meandering trail
Of intertwining fates

I hear the echoed tale of lost and found
With strangers and with new friends
Upon the unexpected flight
Of misadventures led

I feel the shadow of missed paths and tasks
Not taken and not fulfilled
Among the refracted maze
Of industrious grind

I touch the shape of memories crafted
On islands and on mountains
Within the squares of power
And sun spirals of art

I turn to gaze at the stretched horizon
Part misty and part defined
Beyond the boundaries mapped
Of predetermined ends

I rise to greet the year on thermal winds
Half afraid and half inspired
Above the flickering flames
Of unquenchable hope

Book

Life in Transit: Favourite Travel & Tribute Poems

April 19, 2017April 19, 2017

Gran

A Tribute to Jessie Foster

My memories of childhood drift
Like lazy clouds across a blue African sky
Their phantom shapes not quite discernible
Their misty emotions forever changing

Storm clouds are rare among them –
Fleeting electric flashes of self-indulgent anger
Dull, distant thunder-rolls of disturbing fear

Most are wispy, white, feather clouds –
Good-weather scripts of promise and confidence
Magnetic spray patterns of compelling destiny

Some are fluffy cotton wool clouds –
Comforting blankets of cosy support
Wrapped around in a warm joyful embrace …
Like my memories of you, Gran

I remember silver pots of steaming weak tea
And feeding fat earthworms in the mulch patch
And tracking giant Matabele ants in the scorching dust

I remember yummy picnics in the park
And fishing fever at the dam
And trips to the mystical Matopos to gaze from God’s window

I remember playful yapping dogs
And sweet spoils from Meikles
And exciting excursions to Eskimo Hut

I remember thrilling pulsing electrical storms
And intoxicating raindrops on parched bush
And scented carpets of lilac Jacaranda

I remember magical sooty overnight train rides
And roadside treasure hunts for carvings
And awesome encounters with elephant elders

I remember your caring inquisitive way
With random strangers on beaches and benches
And you, resplendent in green, at our wedding celebration

I remember always your welcome lap
And your tinkling chuckle and ready mischievous smile
And your safe secure hand folded around mine

Gran, you billow graciously over the horizon of my life –
A shining fluffy cloud of my childhood
Tinted now with shimmering shades of glowing love
An archetype of everything that Grans are meant to be

Book

Life in Transit: Favourite Travel & Tribute Poems

April 19, 2017

A Place to Bury Your Heart

A Tribute to Romania

The towering city tumbles easily into village and field
Exchanging its coat of grey for a tunic of green
The snaking road entwines river and railway
Past oil wells tirelessly flexing their mechanical muscles
And corn farms harvesting their crop of human toil

Monsters of industry loom like shadows from a bygone era
Devouring and digesting resources
Breathing in energy and exhaling clouds of poison
And by a tantalising trick of technology
Spitting out trinkets of modern convenience

Savage cliffs embrace the panoramic skyline
Like geological petals unfolding
Revealing forests of waving green and gold
An intoxicating pollen of purity
To the hungry gatherers of Nature’s inspiration

The Heroes’ Cross stands like a solitary sentinel
Keeping watch over the battlefield of life
Bittersweet history echoes down the passages of time
In castles, cathedrals and haunted prison cells of memory
Tombstones to the sacrifices of the many for the few

The patterns of the past are danced into the present
In whirling spray of colour and song
While the present is sown into the promise of the future
With magic seeds of friendship and trust
A fertile land – a place to bury your heart

Book

Life in Transit: Favourite Travel & Tribute Poems

April 19, 2017

Love and Blessings

A Celebration of the Birth of Justin Ramsey

Love and blessings on this day
The long dark night
Has warmed to light
The sun’s rays shine
And church bells chime
To tell the world the happy news

Love and blessings on this day
The sky is blue
Life’s made anew
This summer morn
A baby’s born
All nature smiles to celebrate

Love and blessings on this day
The hopes and fears
The laughs and tears
All end in joy
A precious boy
Welcome to your life on earth

Love and blessings on this day
The baby’s cries
Are met with sighs
The parents’ eyes
Are filled with pride
Loved ones gather close around

Love and blessings on this day
Wee tiny toes
And cutest nose
Sweet hands and face
All’s in its place
A perfect little human being

Love and blessings on this day
So many care
Who can’t be there
They send their wishes
Hugs and kisses
Rest easy now in their embrace

Love and blessings on this day
Flowers bloom
Just like the moon
And each new dawn
The world’s reborn
The circle of life’s begun anew

Book

Life in Transit: Favourite Travel & Tribute Poems

April 19, 2017

The Day the World Changed

In Memory of 9/11

One fateful hour of horror!
And the smug safety of every shore
is shattered
The waves of live media-feeds
come crashing in
Smashing our fragile senses
with hyper-dramatic images
Dashing our turbulent emotions
against the rocks of a new reality

Symbols of the free world tumble!
At the earthquake’s epicentre
of death and destruction
Leaving nations shaking and shuddering
with rage and fear
Left to search through the rubble and ruins
where towers of pride once stood
Hoping for a miraculous rescue
of their beliefs and way of life

The world holds its breath!
As the toll of tragic loss ticks
like a time bomb
Of grief and mourning and depression
and hatred and revenge
Some desperately looking for ways
to contain the blast
Others scanning the horizon for a target
on which to explode

The war against terrorism begins!
With a campaign for the ritual slaughter
of a scape goat
And a defiant display of frustrated firepower
and propaganda sorties
Leaving in its wake a cratered moonscape
of humanitarian crises
And a minefield of cultural and religious tensions
that lie unexploded

The world has changed forever!
Forcing us to venture beyond the fortress
of our comfortable self-indulgence
Prompting us to dig deeper than the shallow well
of our cultural arrogance
Pleading with us to rise up out of the morass
of our religious intolerance
Helping, in our quest for meaning, to realise
that the enemy is within