Recently on twitter, my dear comrade and brother, Mpho Ndaba (via @manofcolor_) tweeted that poetry matters and I could not agree with him more. As result, I saw it fit to share a few of my poems that I have written over a couple of years ago. Some of these pieces I have shared before, some not – please do indulge in any case.
When poetry meets jazz
When poetry meets jazz,
jazz becomes poetry
with dense metaphors
whose grammar, syntax and style
shapes the world with its melodic timeless textures.
When jazz meets poetry
poems compose poignant musings
whose sound quell emotions
of bondage, and the brutality of racial violence
– lamenting about black subjectivity.
The improvisation forces the composer
to drown in the imaginative world,
to paint images with colours and illustrations
that take his audiences on a trance,
I’m speaking here
of transcendental musings
and meditations.
When jazz meets poetry
the poet becomes the composer
composing songs of solitude,
solidarity and serenity.
When jazz meets poetry
poetry becomes jazz
and jazz becomes poetry.
when poetry meets jazz
jazz becomes poetry
and poetry becomes jazz
Grazing
Still grazing
in the plantation that the master has built
with the hope to dismember the black folk.
The situation is scathingly unbearable,
but the black folk
found ways to subvert the oppression
by making compelling music
to numb the pain.
The trumpet blows loud in the misty
winds of a cloudy Mississippi morning
in the fields.
The whip carries no power anymore,
the song keeps reverberating the uncompromising
sense of hope and resilience
That is inherently
BLACK.
Still grazing
in the plantation that the master has built,
only the songs of Solomon carry
the resilient hope of the
slaves in the fields of Mississippi.
I close off by reminding you folks that poetry matters, and the purpose of poetry is to: “…express an imaginative-emotional-intellectual experience of the writer’s… in such a way that it creates a similar experience in the mind of his reader or listener” as Clive Sansom puts it succinctly.
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights of the songs featured. Also, these two poems will soon be featured in my upcoming debut anthology of poems.
Khayelethu Reading Club 