Rhodesia

I hope this poem sets the tone for my creative blog. This was my first serious attempt at writing poetry in Form I at Queen Elizabeth High School in Salisbury, Rhodesia, in 1958. It was a time when we were feeling very patriotic and were proud to be Rhodesians and believed it was God’s own country. My Anthology won first prize in Form II. It was a stage in my growing up filled with emotion when I felt everything deeply, when only poetry could satisfy its experession. My grandfather Howes Smith played a great role in encouraging me and helping me to write poetry. I illustrated it later in 1999.

RHODESIA

Rhodesia the land of wonder
Where the wild Zambezi flows
The Falls tumble down asunder
and the peaceful hippo blows

The game are wild and roaming
And the stately kudu bull
Comes out from his sleep in the gloaming
To drink at the water pool

The gloomy Zimbabwe ruins
In older times showed of state
Of ancient people reigning for moons
In two thousand years of late

©Deryn Smith 1958

 

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