Werfhonde 5 by Suenel Bruwer-Holloway

Werfhonde 5

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway

Surname uncertain, we tried out some:

Cronjé (as in Generaal Piet)

Retief (brave but too trusting)

O’Toole and Sellers (both famous and funny).

But he answers only to name number one:

“He is called Pietie,” they told us.

“He climbs walls.”

This SPCA lion, golden and brindled,

unjustly into smallness was swindled.

So Pietie scales fences; his heart will be free…

And magnanimously returns when we call “Pietie!”

From: McGregor Poetry Festival 2014 Anthology

First published in 2015 by African Sun Press
in association with The McGregor Poetry Festival Committee
ISBN 978-0-620-64600-0

The Poet:

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway lives in McGregor. Her plays have been performed at the Grahamstown Festival, in Britain and America. Her satire Cry Sis! Identity was published by Junkets in the Short, Sharp and Snappy Series. She raises children, cooks vast meals, walks dogs, teaches, does laundry, writes and gardens every day.

Previously published:

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway: Neighbours from The Ground’s Ear published by Quickfox, Cape Town, 2011. Hardcover ISBN 978-1-920-52619-1. Softcover ISBN 978-0-620-51665-5.

Golgotha by Suenel Bruwer-Holloway

Golgotha

Georgia is a Staffie that was re-homed when its owners had to move.

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway

Georgia came to this little boy

She understood his secrets:

Why he needed to lie on roofs

Why he refused to learn to read

Why he shredded his shoes

Why he was not a joiner

Why he preferred his spinach sandy

Why he did not fear snakes

Why one explores the krans

Why the Parzival legend was his favourite story.

For hours they’d be gone.

His parents trusted she’d protect him

With-her-life.

The cobra was six foot long.

He came to understand:

Snakes can kill.

He insisted: carried her himself,

staggering under her weight.

We buried her on the krans.

Seldom such selfless sacrifici

From: McGregor Poetry Festival 2014 Anthology

First published in 2015 by African Sun Press
in association with The McGregor Poetry Festival Committee
ISBN 978-0-620-64600-0

The Poet:

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway lives in McGregor. Her plays have been performed at the Grahamstown Festival, in Britain and America. Her satire Cry Sis! Identity was published by Junkets in the Short, Sharp and Snappy Series. She raises children, cooks vast meals, walks dogs, teaches, does laundry, writes and gardens every day.

Previously published:

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway: Neighbours from The Ground’s Ear published by Quickfox, Cape Town, 2011. Hardcover ISBN 978-1-920-52619-1. Softcover ISBN 978-0-620-51665-5.

Werfhonde 3 by Suenel Bruwer-Holloway

Werfhonde 3

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway

Dana daily more attenuated,

a Giacommetti wrought by age:

delicate feet lift off

relentless ethereal pulley

mooring lines loosen

terra less firma

ever more elegant even as –

bladder fails

walk curtails

eyes fade

ears jade

yet still, still and final

in urgent quest for a quandary goal:

only love, the highest role.

Old Ladydog reaches for heaven.

From: McGregor Poetry Festival 2014 Anthology

First published in 2015 by African Sun Press
in association with The McGregor Poetry Festival Committee
ISBN 978-0-620-64600-0

The Poet:

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway lives in McGregor. Her plays have been performed at the Grahamstown Festival, in Britain and America. Her satire Cry Sis! Identity was published by Junkets in the Short, Sharp and Snappy Series. She raises children, cooks vast meals, walks dogs, teaches, does laundry, writes and gardens every day.

Previously published:

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway: Neighbours from The Ground’s Ear published by Quickfox, Cape Town, 2011. Hardcover ISBN 978-1-920-52619-1. Softcover ISBN 978-0-620-51665-5.

Neighbours

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway

In the beginning there were no fences

And we kept it like that. Intentionally.

Who would have thought such naïve

goodwill gestures would make me believe

(seeing is after all) in the possibility of angels:

A toddler serving lunch on a leaf,

a first devastating romantic grief,

wounds dressed with equal earnest imaginings,

whether inflicted by knights, parents’ fights,

skateboard landings, misunderstandings.

Willing, wry humour with tenderness meets

rap and menopause all because all unaware we

harboured angels, we’ve come to see here,

right here in this ordinary place.



From: McGregor Poetry Anthology 2013
Published by African Sun Press in association with the McGregor Poetry Festival
ISBN number 978-0-620-62302-5

The Poet:

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway lives in McGregor. Her plays have been performed at the Grahamstown Festival, in Britain and America. Her satire Cry Sis! Identity was published by Junkets in the Short, Sharp and Snappy Series. She raises children, cooks vast meals, walks dogs, teaches, does laundry, writes and gardens every day.

Previously published:

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway: Neighbours from The Ground’s Ear published by Quickfox, Cape Town, 2011. Hardcover ISBN 978-1-920-52619-1. Softcover ISBN 978-0-620-51665-5.

Bure-kalender

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway

Esau hang sy selfoon in die boom.

Sy musiek kras die kristaldagbreek.

Wasgoedlyn filosowe deel

kosmiese sleutels

simpel grappies

hospice shop truie

hondedrolle

volopte basielkruie

juwele – soos vye

granaatrobyne

hartseertye

gedenkdae

vuurmaakhoutsae

skete en pyne

perspektiewe

kleindorpsgriewe

boereraat

fyntuinsaad

die geur van die tuinier se zolle.

Nog ’n week is verby.


From: McGregor Poetry Anthology 2013
Published by African Sun Press in association with the McGregor Poetry Festival
ISBN number 978-0-620-62302-5

The Poet:

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway lives in McGregor. Her plays have been performed at the Grahamstown Festival, in Britain and America. Her satire Cry Sis! Identity was published by Junkets in the Short, Sharp and Snappy Series. She raises children, cooks vast meals, walks dogs, teaches, does laundry, writes and gardens every day.

Previously published:

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway: Neighbours from The Ground’s Ear published by Quickfox, Cape Town, 2011. Hardcover ISBN 978-1-920-52619-1. Softcover ISBN 978-0-620-51665-5.

Adult: Between Stormsvlei and Riviersonderend

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway

Thousands of little birds tow the sky:
a Pierneef landscape flung with animation.
Tiny notes land along the wire:
Instant sheet music stretches out a choir
around the field of stubble,
a bateleur eagle post-perched like a bass clef,
geese silhouetted against a silver puddle.
The mysterious absent baton swoops:
Black feathered notes bunch, spread, tense, flutter, fly;
The music rises, regroups, sweeps across the sky.




From: McGregor Poetry Anthology 2013
Published by African Sun Press in association with the McGregor Poetry Festival
ISBN number 978-0-620-62302-5

The Poet:

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway lives in McGregor. Her plays have been performed at the Grahamstown Festival, in Britain and America. Her satire Cry Sis! Identity was published by Junkets in the Short, Sharp and Snappy Series. She raises children, cooks vast meals, walks dogs, teaches, does laundry, writes and gardens every day.

Previously published:

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway: Neighbours from The Ground’s Ear published by Quickfox, Cape Town, 2011. Hardcover ISBN 978-1-920-52619-1. Softcover ISBN 978-0-620-51665-5.

Kind: Klavierles

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway


Vyf drade gespan oor die hele blad.
Links sit ’n kraanvoël maar hy is deskant, die regterhand
Vet voëltjies, hol duifies, skaars daar swaeltjies, vinkies, sysies, mossies
land op die heining, ewewig onseker.
Bo sweef ’n valk, land nie, die rus fladder daar.
Vet vingertjies tas ...
                              (die voëltjies aarsel, tril. Sit tog stil!)
.... en kry die klawers
weer en weer tot vingertjies vol vertroue vlieg oor die note
en voëltjies sit op die vyf-draad heining met stewige pote.


From: McGregor Poetry Anthology 2013
Published by African Sun Press in association with the McGregor Poetry Festival
ISBN number 978-0-620-62302-5

The Poet:

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway lives in McGregor. Her plays have been performed at the Grahamstown Festival, in Britain and America. Her satire Cry Sis! Identity was published by Junkets in the Short, Sharp and Snappy Series. She raises children, cooks vast meals, walks dogs, teaches, does laundry, writes and gardens every day.

Previously published:

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway: Neighbours from The Ground’s Ear published by Quickfox, Cape Town, 2011. Hardcover ISBN 978-1-920-52619-1. Softcover ISBN 978-0-620-51665-5.