10. Paul's Poem

Dear Sade,

The time I love the best is early evening when a soft refreshing breeze sends a hot, humid day scuttling into the mist like snow on the equator. It's a time when rainbow trout rise to my dry fly, a gentle wind flirts with a foam-flecked beach and the sound of the sea rolls off the Voelklip mountain like a whimsical waterfall of molten blue glass. This magical hour or two is known as the 'cool of the day' and it was the time when God conversed with Adam. On 23 November 1998 my 'cool of the day' arrived unexpectedly at 9.20 a.m. in the morning via email from Australia in the form of a poem from your uncle Paul. In his poem Paul expresses his feelings about my art, making it the most meaningful thing a son can do for his artist father. The poem which launched a feeling of overwhelming gentleness in me will be printed and framed together with my favourite painting and it will hang in my studio until the day I am laid to rest. At that time I would like it to grace Gran's studio after which it will pass on to you together with my brushes. Savour it. Treasure it and read it often as I do.

I FIND IT TO BE A MYSTERY

In this life there are bitterly few things
That I see for the first time
When looking at them for the second.
Like gazing upon a brother
Whom you thought was dead.
Like watching a golden sun
Strive through the darkness
Of a breaking day.
Like sucking in a breath of air
As the wonder of being alive
Floods you
Like a freshly spilled cup of coffee
On a stark white wedding dress.
Such is your art to me
As you are.

Your son Paul.

With feeling, Love Gramps
January 1999