5 posts tagged “poetry”

I have been a bit staid in my blogging for the past few days, mainly because of a project I was working on.  (More on that from my last post.) 

As I was listening to the radio last night, some girl called in and spoke the DJ, now this is a call in show of some sorts when you call in and air your views on the topics of the day.  She told the DJ that she felt all alone.  Now this girl lives with her parents, she is an only child and they’ve taken to locking her up. Her only refuge is now her cell phone.  No friends because she can not hang out with them.

Her folks think that out there she’ll be contaminated, get pregnant, get bad friends and generally go down the wrong path.  So the decided to lock up their precious diamond to preserve its shine, so to speak. 

Now being an old enough chap myself, I feel sorry for her and wish all the best what do you guys think of such a situation?

I wrote a poem for her hope that she’ll read it one day,

Emptiness threatened to kill

To send you to silence and darkness

And space is full

Of nothing

Of no one

And it is like the rapture

With no trumpets, fire and light

Just chatter of familiar

Yet mechanical voices

And artificial warmth like

2345 AD, the end of the world

And you are all alone

Shivering in a dusty mist

Crying out,” is anybody here?”

Like Pink Floyd

Silence, not so pin drop silence

A voice, “yeah! I am here”

I am very pleased and happy that my pal and good friend, Tony Mochama is launching his poetry anthology on 10^th November 2007 at the Goethe Institute in Nairobi.  Tony, for the time that I have know him is a mad chap and the book aptly titled, ‘What if I am a Literary Gangster?’ promise more madness.

I haven’t read the book yet but from the titbit I have gathered I think it will be a great read.

Tony is one of the individuals I can call a soldier for the art of poetry, which for those who do not know is a sublime art.  Poetry is not a conglomeration of sounds and rhythmic rhymes where words haven’t any meaning other than the superficial.  Poetry is a well thought out collage of merging thoughts, ideas and letters which gives out something different at every encounter.

I will attend the book launch and give you a detailed review after that .  All I can say is that this bodes well for our poetry.

For Theo Van Gogh

Yeah we'll meet

up above, yonder

and we'll ponder

over words and pictures

as we stare over the neon horizon

with flickering lights

like lightbulbs and bright ideas

Yeah we'll meet

over drinks at the motel

of eternity

looking at earthlings

slinging in dodgy alleys

unlit and unknown like poetry

and we'll dance

nothing macabre

just a jig

and we'll see things clearly

no hazes

for then we'll know

that for us

the fat lady will never sing

Silence reads the sign in the bar

in the doorway, to the loos above where the jukebox

was laid to rest after a

high guy sprayed it while marking territory

ala a dog

Music tries to steal in

through the keyhole  as two silhouttes merge into one

for that brief

alcohol induced thrill where

excitement heightens as steps approach

steps to open the door and let in the bar

and release the quiet trickle

of that old man's piss

and the hushed movements

of the couple in a kiss.

Isn’t black like a darker shade of white

And white a lighter version of black

Or is black a stain on white

And white a lack

Of something

A colour of emptiness

That thing whose hollowness

Dins like a market racket

Like black when in its fullness

Is like a congested packet

Isn’t black, white