COMRADE LOVE NEEDED
Sorrow of Love is hard to bear
stretches my bones and
I cannot go on
A need for comrades
to speak about Love
lost their ability to love
can only love for moments
......
THE ÉCHO RETURNS NOT
[ Poet’s note : SOLOMON MAHLANGU was a South African Freedom fighter & cherished leader in revolutionary army, Umkhonto we Sizwe. He was sentenced to death by hanging, by the Apartheid Government on 2 March 1978 & hung on 6 April 1979. Though he was not actually the cadre who pulled a trigger killing two civilians, the Prosecution argued that under the Law of Common Purpose, Mahlangu shared intent with the cadré who pulled the trigger ]
Four decades and six years have passed
at 7.00am
in sweaty coffee plantation not far from Camp 13 I cried and
cried
......
FEAR NOT TO VISION
Fear not to vision
Trust to catch stardust from
Whence we came
Create a new World, woven
With Peace and Patience
Fear not the glaring blaze of Light
It dazzles us with lucid eyes
......
{Poet’s Note : I wrote this poem for the passing of my very dear friend & comrade, Cecyl Esau, Umkhonto we Sizwe Commander in 2021, as a contribution to his memorial service. Cecyl was given a full Provincial Military Official Funeral. Though the reading was filmed & recorded as part of the proceedings, I recently kept dreaming about Cecyl. I realised that he wanted me to post the poem here. So now I am doing just that, with my love for him, & trust it will be found by some of the soldiers he commanded, who are still living. Cecyl was sentenced for 12yrs imprisonment on Robben Island for his political cum military activity. He later joined the Institute of Justice & Reconciliation, continuing to strengthen Democracy in South Africa, before his passing }
CECYL : SON OF OUR SOIL : CONSUMMATE REVOLUTIONARY
U stood there
Magnetic
our sacred Cause ingrained
in your palms
expecting nothing but
what a moment would bring
......
ALUTA CONTINUA : FORCED REMOVALS
( Poet’s Note : This poem first appeared in : A Collection of Memoirs on District Six titled District Six Memories, Thoughts and Images/ Attic Press, 2021, as part of a collection of nine poems on Forced Removals )
We willed concentrated power
circled in cobalt blue
fields of strawberries
and dagger beckoned
irrespective of consciousness
a sorry state of affairs when battles
......
SOLITARY CONFINEMENT 1 : Number Four
Many chains, many locks and bars
clattered at four in the morning
black bitter coffee drugged
a single bucket of cold water
it was winter
I had ten minutes to speak
......
ALUTA CONTINUA : FORCED REMOVALS
( Poet’s Note : This poem first appeared in : A Collection of Memoirs on District Six titled District Six Memories, Thoughts and Images/ Attic Press, 2021, as part of a collection of nine poems on Forced Removals )
We willed concentrated power
circled in cobalt blue
fields of strawberries
and dagger beckoned
irrespective of consciousness
a sorry state of affairs when battles
......
FEAR NOT TO VISION
Fear not to vision
Trust to catch stardust from
Whence we came
Create a new World, woven
With Peace and Patience
Fear not the glaring blaze of Light
It dazzles us with lucid eyes
......
{Poet’s Note : I wrote this poem for the passing of my very dear friend & comrade, Cecyl Esau, Umkhonto we Sizwe Commander in 2021, as a contribution to his memorial service. Cecyl was given a full Provincial Military Official Funeral. Though the reading was filmed & recorded as part of the proceedings, I recently kept dreaming about Cecyl. I realised that he wanted me to post the poem here. So now I am doing just that, with my love for him, & trust it will be found by some of the soldiers he commanded, who are still living. Cecyl was sentenced for 12yrs imprisonment on Robben Island for his political cum military activity. He later joined the Institute of Justice & Reconciliation, continuing to strengthen Democracy in South Africa, before his passing }
CECYL : SON OF OUR SOIL : CONSUMMATE REVOLUTIONARY
U stood there
Magnetic
our sacred Cause ingrained
in your palms
expecting nothing but
what a moment would bring
......
THE ÉCHO RETURNS NOT
[ Poet’s note : SOLOMON MAHLANGU was a South African Freedom fighter & cherished leader in revolutionary army, Umkhonto we Sizwe. He was sentenced to death by hanging, by the Apartheid Government on 2 March 1978 & hung on 6 April 1979. Though he was not actually the cadre who pulled a trigger killing two civilians, the Prosecution argued that under the Law of Common Purpose, Mahlangu shared intent with the cadré who pulled the trigger ]
Four decades and six years have passed
at 7.00am
in sweaty coffee plantation not far from Camp 13 I cried and
cried
......