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Darkness and Lightness from the Present: Musique a Stellenbosch

David F Williams, PhD, DSc, FREng, FLSW
Author, Scientist & Consultant

I wrote a few poems for our premier Café Poétique, held in Franshhoek, South Africa in 2014. I have hosted a few Café Scientifiques around the world, including one in Franschhoek a few years earlier in which we described our work with children suffering from rheumatic heart disease. We decided that it was appropriate now to turn our attention to.

Darkness and Lightness from the Present: Musique a Stellenbosch

Oude Libertas
A heart-shaped amphitheatre
Of strings
A Soweto quartet
And a flamenco duet flourishing from the Cape
Lightness grew amidst the darkening skies of even’

Black on white
Afrikaans and Xhosa
Young and older
History and anticipation

Serious undertones but refreshing notes
Across the immense divide
Just twenty years on
Could I believe what I saw
In Stellenbosch?
Yes I could, and did
And they finaled
With the Madiba Jive
Could you ask for more enlightenment in your heart?

Franschhoek, South Africa, February 2014

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