Poems
by Jimmy Henderson

To my wife

I am free spirit
you are fully human
I am activity , air and ideals
and you are the mother of true humanity, the earth.
We need to be both
and that is why in becoming one ,
we are the completion of true being.


2. The Knowledge
I stood there in the joy of knowing
and she passed me by
this little black woman, small with age.
Yet as she passed I smiled
and she smiled.
She knew that I knew
and no word was said.
Words would have been inadequate,
two souls had spoken instead.


3. On human suffering
We hear the cry of the children
and seek meaning in the will of God.
It is better to look to the will of men.
Let the father of the child look to his choice,
made without the need of his God
or look to the decision of he, who without God’s will
has sought to trust his own judgement
and whose weakness now touches all.

4. Sentiments on the hunt
I sadden when I think of the creatures, although but a few,
that had to die until the time that I knew
that their lives were not mine to cause to suffer,
nor to pain
but Nature’s children under Nature’s reign
better left to Nature’s law and predator’s paw
to die nobly,
than to die for human vain.

5. Old soldiers never die.
I saw the excitement in his old eyes as he saw my uniform
and for a few seconds
were reflected the memories of the glory of victories won
and the sorrow of comrades fallen.
I should have known from his bearing that he was an old soldier
and I regret having not saluted him then.


6. Alexandra ( a modern Romeo and Juliet)
(Based on the violence between the ANC and IFP in Alexandra in1992)
Oh Alexandra !,
what should have been a flame of hope
has been consumed by the flames of despair.
Like two lovers who wish to be together,
no force on earth can keep them apart.
But their dance is one of death and destruction
and not of love.

7. The pain of growth
Nature appears perfect, but it is not so.
If things were perfect,
they would not need to grow.
If all was complete, they would not need to evolve
and human beings would have no riddles to solve.
Our world is imperfect and full of pain.
It must be so, if we are to find gains
in real understanding of the way things are
and still find peace in that which remains.