Danie Marais's third collection of poetry, Solank verlange die sweep swaai, is a brooding, sometimes muttering, at times blustering reflection on the South African middle-class version of the human condition. It is about the “roaring forties” and the first ominous signs of middle age, about divorce, single fatherhood, disillusionment, a beloved mother who narrowly escapes death, and about the alarming relevance of horror flicks and pop culture. The violence of love and the treacherous chimeras of poetry are consistent themes. Solank verlange die sweep swaai offers the words of someone who has lost his faith in the art of words, but continues writing because it is the only form of psychic self-preservation he understands more or less. These are the faltering thoughts of a man who is dumbfounded by his own everyday stories from a life that challenges and undermines all his attempts at sense and philosophical contemplation.