ISSN 2304-8107

the Love potion

2014 | 01
print quarterly number five
www.poetrypotion.com
ISSN 2304-8107

editor & publisher

duduzile zamantungwa mabaso
zamantungwa@poetrypotion.com

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Black Letter Media (Pty) Ltd
photo of Raven from the Manifesto video

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 Contents
Editorial 6

Poet Muse 8

Poet Profile 10

Hand in Hand | Charl Landsberg 31

Life | Motena Tintswalo Cathrine Mathe 32
Love | Mapitsane 33
Love Hurts | Ravona 34
The charmer | Ekerete Umoetok 36
On the Flipside | Jeannie Wallace McKeown 38
Analgesia | Ashraf Booley 39
A Lady | Abdulmugheeth Petersen 40
Peace of Mind | Moses Kilolo 41
On my own | Menzi Maseko 42
Can a poem ever die? | Amreen B. Shaikh 44
Loving Me | Mercy Dhliwayo 45

Q&A | Tumelo Khoza 48

Poetry Seen | Jozi House of Poetry 54

Writers Block | The Silence That Words Come From 58

Contributors 60
Submissions Guidelines 64
 Editorial
let me take a sip
drink just a little
enough to quench this
something caught in my throat

just a little taste to

parch this dry patch
soothe this aching scratch
with that nectar

but there is nothing

no roses red or blue violets

no comparing me to a summer’s day

it’s winter here

but perhaps
just a sip of that potion
will melt these iced emotions
bring back that summer’s day

yes, yes, just a little drink will do

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 Poetry Potion

Love poems, poetry about love. Love for country,

lover, friend, family, self, life, nature, freedom, truth...
and so much more. Are all the things I hope this edition
explores.
This edition’s Poet Muse is Mbulelo Mzamane, a
storyteller, academic and poet who recently passed away.
The Poet Profiled is Raven, American-born spoken
word artist who is based in Ireland. Met this powerful
poet at the 2013 Poetry Africa. Enjoyed speaking to him,
hearing his poetry and partying with him and all those
talented crazy poets who were at Poetry Africa last year.
Tumelo Khoza, co-founder of the Cup o’ Thought
poetry sessions in Durban spoke to Menzi Maseko in
the Q&A section about her poetry and what inspires
her.
And what would Poetry Potion be without poetry?
These poets - Charl Landsberg, Motena Tintswalo
Cathrine Mathe, Mapitsane, Ravona, Ekerete
Umoetok, Jeannie Wallace McKeown, Ashraf
Booley, Menzi Maseko, Abdulmugheeth Petersen,
Moses Kilolo, Amreen B. Shaikh and Mercy
Dhliwayo - are love.
As Poetry Potion continues to grow, we’re now
offering subscriptions, to make sure you get this
quarterly poetry journal in your mail box, subscribe and
help us grow.

peace

zamantungwa
founder, editor

7
 Poet Muse
Mbulelo
Mzamane
poet, academic, author (1948 – 2014)

Mbulelo Vizikhungo Mzamane spent

much of his literary career as an educator
and academic having lectured in English
literature since 1976. Seen by others as
not a serious writer, Mzamane always
considered himself a teacher first. His
debut book was Mzala: the Stories of Mbulelo
Mzamane (1981). A collection of short stories
with was republished as My Cousin Comes
to Johannesburg and Other Stories a year later.
His other books include The Children of
Soweto (1982), Hungry Flames and other Black
South African Short Stories (1986), Words Gone
Two Soon: Tribute to Phaswane Mpe and K. Sello
Duiker (2006), Children of Paradise (2011) plus
numerous essays in various publications.
Mzamane has also edited the poetry
collections of Mongane Wally Serote, Selected

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Poems: Mongane Wally Serote (1982), and Sipho

Sepamla, Selected Poems: Sipho Sydney Sepamla
(1983).

Mzamane was, until his passing, the director

of the UKZN Centre for African Literature.

“In African society, art has traditionally

been functional, and the poets of the
Soweto era identified with this tradition.
They created poetry based on the ideas,
problems, experiences, and aspirations of
their people. Their poetry is a communal
event, and they are the izimbongi come
to life. They carry the functions of the
izimbongi into the midst of the fractured
lives of the prisoners of apartheid. They
are the sympathetic observers who voice
the hopes and fears, aspirations and
frustrations, of others. But sometimes
they advise and at a crucial juncture they
advocate action.Ӡ

For many, Prof Mzamane’s death, this

February, was unexpected. Those close to
him, his friends, colleagues and family have
lost someone they care about. South Africa
has lost a griot; we thank him for leaving us
with so many gems.

RIP Prof Mzamane and condolences to his

loved ones.

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 Poet Profile
Raven by zamantungwa

When I meet Raven at the poet’s hotel, in Durban, he’s in

South Africa along with three other Irish poets - Paul Casey,
Billy Ramsell and Afric McGlinchley - to perform at the 17th
annual Poetry Africa. I didn’t know much of his work but I

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was intrigued by the Manifesto video.

I’m nervous but he puts me at ease with his open manner
and smile, how when he speaks he closes his eyes, gestures with
his arms, moves his entire body, it’s as if he’s in performance.
He fully inhabits his body.
We spoke about poetry amongst other things, and this is
what transpired.

Raven: This is the most work I have done between

gigs and workshops just because usually, you might go
and do a one day workshop or you play at a festival for
two or three days in a row. I’m here for ten days and it’s
been presentations and talks and campus invasions and
performances and going here and going there so this
has been an absolutely insane week so I’m exhausted
but I’m meeting such an amazing group of poets.
I was saying to someone that usually if I go to poetry
events in Ireland, because the country is so small, you
can really get to know the national scene. In countries
as large as the United States and South Africa, it’s hard
to just really know what’s going on across the entire
country. Whereas in Ireland it doesn’t take much before
you’re really a part of the national scene. In Ireland, I
know most of the people there. I know people in the
Cork scene and the Galway scene and the Belfast scene
and so the strangest thing to me was to come to a poetry
event and I don’t know anybody but the people I came
with. This is really weird.
It’s been a great opportunity to get to know a really
remarkable group of poets and remarkable people.
In addition to all the work of the festival – doing the
workshops and the presentations at universities and the
different places and the performances – I’ve also [spent]
a lot of time for just getting out of my head with some

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of these people. They have a saying back home not back

home, but back in Ireland that says, “setting the world
to rights.” You sit down with a bottle of something with
somebody or a group of people, you get drunk and you
just talk the world into some sense. Just, sort of, lay it
out. It’s been nice to just sit down and “peel an orange”
with some people. Have some libations, get loose and
talk about poetry.
So, it’s meant really late nights and really early
mornings.
So, I’m beat.

Za: Talking about home, were there major differences

between the two poetry scenes in the USA and Ireland?
If there were any, were they cultural differences?
Raven: I come from a whole background of creative
protests. My folks were, or are, labour activists, activists
for social justice. They were very active in the anti-
apartheid movement in the United States. As a matter-
of-fact, I was here in 1997 shooting a documentary on
a choir that they are members of. There was a choir
formed by a South African in exile, before apartheid
ended. He taught them South African freedom songs in
order to support the anti-apartheid movement outside
the United States. In ’97, the choir got a chance to
travel to South African and do a tour from Cape town
to Johannesburg – performing, raising money for
health-care centres and child care centres in townships
and some other places. So, I grew up in that whole
atmosphere of creative protest. The work that you do
always serves a higher purpose.
It’s the reason why, for example, I don’t enter
slams because the whole aspect of slam that is about
competition throws off my purpose. It doesn’t for other

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people; there are plenty of very conscious slam poets,

who have very important things to say. But for me
personally, the aspect of competition throws off my
purpose so I don’t do slams.
When I first started to bring my work out publicly,
that’s probably about fifteen years ago, maybe a little
bit longer than that; I started doing my poetry in
guerrilla street theatre, political street theatre. When I
first started bringing my stuff into open mics, I [found]
listening crowds. It was called Sacred Grounds in San
Francisco and they were a lovely, nurturing space. When
I moved to Ireland the first thing I realised was that,
because it’s much more of a drinking culture than the
United States is, the crowd that I was finding myself in
front of was rowdier, they were more prone to giving
me a slagging. But I had enough of an ego to take it and
gain the respect of the poets in Ireland so I didn’t take
too much of a slagging in Ireland. Folks could really be
kinda merciless. If they didn’t like something, they will
let you know. I found [that] in the States, audiences can
be almost too polite. You can walk off the strange and
know that you bombed and there’ll still be a little bit
of a polite clap.
I spent the first forty years of my life in my hometown.
You got used to, I don’t know what you’d call it, a house
style. And I think that different countries, different
cities, will have a [different] house style. For example,
if you listen to a lot of American slam now there’s a
cadence and there’s a delivery that you can hear. I’m
bored of it at this point. If I hear somebody deliver a
poem that way, I’m gonna scream. It’s gotten to the
point were the first people who started doing it we were
like, “yeah, that’s a sharp kind of delivery” but now it’s
codified and because it’s codified and sort of formulaic
it’s now boring. But having said that, I’ve found that
Ireland and [SA], there’s a kind of approach, a delivery,

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a way of using words.

I knew a South African poet in Dublin and he had
a delivery that in Ireland seemed so odd, a bit, just
different. And upon having come here for this trip and
hearing people speak and hearing people perform, it
makes so much more sense now.
Because I hear that cadence and some of it has to
do with the language that you speak. There’s a cadence
in the native tongues here that carries over even when
people are speaking English. From the moment I heard,
like a handful of, people perform, I was like, “oh yeah,
Joseph, completely make sense to me now. The Irish
have that too.
Mind you, if you listen to Paul Casey, Billy Ramsell
and Afric McGlinchely, the three poets I came with
here, you won’t necessarily hear it. But when you start
listening to poets in mass, you’ll realise that even though
not exactly the same, there’s a same kind of approach.
Do you know the composer Harry Partch; have you
ever heard of him?

Za: No.

Raven: He was an experimental and minimalist

composer. He was considered a classical composer, he
got really disgusted with the whole classical industry
and for ten years, he absolutely refused to write music.
For that ten years, he rode the trains as a hobo, we
call it “riding the blinds” back home. And while living
as a transient, he started writing down snippets of
conversations, bits of speech that he overheard because
he had this whole idea about the musicality of everyday
speech. His belief was that everyday speech had a music
and a cadence that you could actually present as music

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on a stage. And when I listen to different languages

being spoken, Dublin is great for that because there’s
has been so much immigration into Ireland in the last
fifteen years. When I walk down the streets of Dublin,
I’m hearing several different African languages because
you’ve got people from Nigeria, Somalia, Ethiopia,
South Africa there. I’m hearing Polish, Lithuanian,
Chinese, Spanish, French. All these different languages
and what I’m also hearing is the different cadence in
those languages, the different rhythms so I’ve gotten
used to, in general, an Irish rhythm that comes from
just the way that people talk.
Those are the big differences I’ve found in moving.
Just rhythms and the audiences and styles.

Za: You mentioned how different the crowds react.

I’d say our crowds are lot like the US crowds then.
Raven: Actually the thing that’s lovely about the
crowds here, it’s been a hit-and-miss though, some of
them have been really quite and polite. But the thing
that I’ve noticed is that, for example, in the Baptist
church back home people do what’s called testifying.
The preacher will be up in front of the congregation and
people in the congregation saying, “Tell it, preacher!
Yes indeed! Mhm!”
I found the crowds here will do that. If they like
what you’re saying, if they’re feeling it. They will testify.
I like that.

Za: That’s true when they really like it, you’ll

know it. But when their not sure what the hell you’re
doing then they’ll clap politely and they’ll keep it their
opinions to themselves.
How has experiencing these two different countries

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shaped your performance?

Raven: I’ve been in Ireland for eight years now, so
probably for another eight years, prior to that I was
building my craft back home. When I finally decided
I wanted to bring this stuff out in the public, I started
going out in the open mic. Thought I was pretty good.
Thought I had my stuff together. Moved to Ireland.
Found people using words in ways that I didn’t. Found
a cadence that I was unfamiliar with and found that
I was learning something from the poets that I knew.
There are excellent poets in Ireland and they have
things to teach me.
By the same token the last several days, I’ve spent
here, have made me wish that I could spend another
year or two just amongst the poets here, to soak up
what they know and to learn from them. And the one
thing it has taught me is that you should never get
too big for your breaches. Never think you know it all
because I imagine that in any place you go, there’d be
approaches to poetry that would surprise you and give
you something to come away with.
What I’ve actually really come away with here is that
I want to learn isiZulu. It’s a beautiful language. I’ve
heard performances in isiZulu where I have no idea
what you’re saying but the cadence, you know...
There are a lot of poets who read from the page.
The reason I memorise, and I imagine a lot of other
poets who memorise would agree with this too, is that
with memorisation you have eye contact, your hands
are not encumbered by the page. You have a full body
performance. The thing I’m looking forward to is the
wireless mic that I’ll have available for me on Friday that
will allow me to move around the stage (The Elizabeth
Sneddon Theatre at UKZN), it’s a lovely stage. One of
the things I found with most of the performing poets

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in Ireland, and there’s actually one real stand out and

exception I can think off and she’s remarkable, they
don’t spend a lot of time in thinking about what their
bodies are doing while their performing. Even if they’re
not reading from the page, there’s a tendency to just
stand up and deliver. But me, I feel those words moving
in me, I move. And that’s what I’ve been seeing from a
lot of people here.
I saw Sane(lisiwe Ntuli) perform. I’ve seen her
perform three times now and the way she uses her body
on stage, even though I don’t understand anything that
she’s saying, speaks so much about the story she’s telling.
Hearing the audience respond to her. There’s a call and
response. She’s moving around. She’s signifying. She’s
sitting down on the ground. Pura (Lavisa), when I saw
him last night he was back and forth on the stage. The
way I like to more too, I’m gonna be the same way. He
was he was up on isles at one point. I can’t recite sitting
down, that doesn’t work for me I did a presentation
yesterday and Malika (Ndlovu) gave her first poem
sitting down and I couldn’t. So the biggest thing has
really been from going from the US to Ireland and then
visiting here, it’s really been just a learning experience.
And I take those things with me. I add those things
to what I know. That becomes part of my arsenal

Za: You also work as a cinematographer, I saw your

video, Manifesto. Manifesto is quite minimalist. It’s not
too performed and even some of the visuals you chose
were not always an obvious match to what you’re saying.
Talk to me about merging poetry with film and how
you made this video?
Raven: I’ve always been a multimedia artist. I’m a
cinematographer, I’m a spoken word artist, I have been
a graphic designer, I played viola in a rock band for a

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while. Means of expression are fluid for me and I’ve

wanted to be facile in a number of them so that if there
was something that I felt I couldn’t say with words
maybe there was an image that said what I wanted to
say. So I always wanted to feel the freedom to move
from this medium to another medium depending on
which I feel was the most appropriate to get my point
across.
Sometimes it’s film.
Sometimes, it’s poetry, spoken word.
I read about five different books at a time and
it’s because, I have an overactive, number one and
two, because in reading different things at one time
you starting making connections. You start seeing
similarities between several different subjects and my
poetry has always been about drawing these different
connection together so that they all make sense to me.
It’s about making sense of the world, taking all these
impetuses, all of these influences that we’re constantly
assaulted by, and actually being able to hold them in
my hand and have them make sense.
But as a result, what often happens is that I keep
a running list of word clips, either in a notebook or
my phone. Word couplets, what have you. And there is
something amazing that happens when you take what
initially seem like two disparate things, things that
should not go together, and you put them together and
suddenly you’ve got something new. [Suddenly] you’re
saying something else [when] both of those things start
talking to each other and they are saying something
neither one of them simply could’ve said. The same
happens when you juxtapose images in poetry or film
so it’s a really fascinating idea.
In the Manifesto video, for example, there are certain
things that I have that I’m very fond of. I was sitting in

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my bedroom [with] all the objects I like, I have a little

glass eye, which is the thing that’s in my mouth, the
butterfly, the little fragile doll.
I wanted to make a video that was about that piece
but wasn’t literal. I don’t think we always need to be
so literal in our translations and I feel like the [video]
expressed the feeling of what the poem was about.
The poem starts of with the line, “I found my orphaned
voice one day.” It’s all about realising one’s self, finding
one’s voice, and realising that one has something
valuable to say. It’s about voices that have been silenced.
I have a line in the poem that says, “The roar of distant
sons is unheard yet years after their deaths are we aware of their
presence when it is darkest.” I’m talking about distant stars
and distant suns and the fact that their light takes years
to reach the earth. So, we’re always looking into the
past when we see their stars. But I was also talking
about distant sons, in terms of our ancestors and those
voices that reach to us from the past, that light that
reaches to us from the past that we see in the present.
It’s about drawing strength from what has come
before. It’s about dealing with your fear and feeling
that your voice is valuable so there are things like the
butterfly, which is a symbol of transformation come
up on the mouth that’s going ‘shhh’ or the image of
an eye popping out of the mouth. The mouth that is
the extension of “I see and I speak.” So when I start
breaking it down, all of the images do have a reference
to the words that I’m speaking but they may not be
obvious. The fragile doll, the idea of this figure with
its face bandaged up and ‘fragile’ tattooed across its
forehead but still coming out for the fight.
So, the poem really is all about those images but not
in so direct a way. And that’s they way I like to play.
As poets, the beauty of using language is that we can

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use it to play. I love metaphor. Metaphor speaks to me

so much louder. Because metaphor gives you a picture
and we see in pictures. I love the words that give us a
picture and that’s exactly what I’m doing with film.

Za: Speak to me about process. When you are about

to create, do you know which direction it’s going to go?
Raven: I never know which way I’m going. I’ve
only known one other person who uses this process.
Basically, I’m reading, I’m walking through the world,
I’m seeing things, I’m hearing bits of conversation,
I’m engaging in conversation with people. When I’m
in conversation and certain images come up, I’ll start
writing them down. My wife has caught me before when
we’re having a conversation. She’ll ask, “are you taking
notes” and I’m like “yeah, this is good stuff, baby.”
I’ll be reading the dictionary, encyclopaedia or
something online and I’ll come across word couplets
that are lyrical or a single word that I like or a phrase
that I heard. Somebody will say something and I’ll want
to remember that. I keep [everything] in a list.
I keep a whole list of these things and I’ve been
thinking of just publishing the list as it is, because
it’s a stream of consciousness that sort of represents
my movement through my days. But what happens is
that because I’m thinking about, say three different
subjects, I’m thinking about some political issue, certain
emotional things that I’m going through. I’ll start going
through that list, I’ll realise that this word couplet is
talking about. This sentence is talking about that. I’ll
start pulling those out and putting them on a separate
page. So then, what I’ve got is the ingredients that will
go in the soup. I’ll start shuffling those around, figuring
out the order then I’ll start filling out the gaps between
them. I’ll start taking away bits of what I already have

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and I’ll add bits until finally I have a whole piece.

As a result, it’s a very slow process and I write about,
probably, what I would consider three good poems a
year. I’m not one of those people who turns out twenty/
fifty poems in a year. I probably write about ten and
there are about three that end up being worthwhile and
the rest get thrown back into the soup and reshuffle
again.

Za: Back in the soup?

Raven: Yeah, if something is not working. The
pieces are still valid; they’re just not speaking to each
other the right way. I just pull out other pieces and see
what can I do with these but my process is really slow.

Za: It’s an interesting process. It’s slow but it makes

me wonder about writer’s block, because it seems to me
that your process deals with that.
Raven: I feel like I constantly have writer’s block
because I’m not one of those writers who can sit down and
just write. I was with one of my friends, Billy Ramsell,
yesterday or the day before, and he was suggesting to a
group of students that they write everyday for at least an
hour or two. I don’t do that. I can’t.
Writing to me comes in very small snippets. A
snippet, a sentence, one word here sometimes and those
get thrown into the list. So, I’m not one of those writers
who write everyday for two hours. So I constantly feel
that a have a writer’s block because I have had to train
myself to focus on being able to get things done because
I’m very hyper sensitive to colours, sound, all the
influences of this world.
When I was a kid, I was a wanderer. I’d be heading

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somewhere and then “ooh there are some bugs here on

the ground, what are they doing?” “What’s happening
over there?” “What that sound come from there?”
Nowadays, I can actually get from one place to another
without getting sidetracked too much. But I am so
moved by some of the things that I see, that I experience
that I’m moved to speechlessness. It aches sometimes
because there are things that I want desperately to write
about because I can feel them, they’ve come into me,
their are moving inside me but the words aren’t there
yet. Because they have moved me so much I can’t speak.
And what ends up happening is that after these
things have sat with me for a while, something comes
together and suddenly I will just write in a flood and
that happens fast. When it happens fast, I’ll churn out
a finished piece in a day but it doesn’t happen before
it’s ready to happen.
So I always have writer’s block.
Always, except for those short periods where all
the inspiration that’s been simmering for a long time
finally comes to a head and then it’s just all over the
page. Yeah, quite often, it’s frustrating.

Za: I read in your bio that you’re working on a book.

Raven: Because I write so slowly, at almost 50 years
old I’m finally coming out with my first book of poetry.
It’s been a long time coming but it takes a long time
to compile the work. It’s called “The Living, the Dead and
Americans” and it represents probably the best of the last
ten years of work that I’ve done. I was hoping to have
copies before I came down but we just couldn’t get the
cover together in time. There was some back and forth
and discussion about the cover design. It just didn’t
haven’t in time but yeah, I’m looking forward to it.

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Although at the same time, I think because there has

been really an increase in the interest in performance
poetry, there has been a fair amount of discussion in the
poetry scene in Ireland, I don’t know about anywhere
else but in my circle of friends, about the validity of the
book at this point in time.
The book for me, basically, is a reliquary; it’s a burial
place for this work so that I can feel that it is settled
because it still lives inside me. Once it’s in this book
and published, it’s a reliquary, it’s set aside - it’s not set
aside because I’m so proud of the work and I’m hoping
to sell as many copies as possible but it gives that stuff
a place to rest so that I can move on to the next phase.
Because I’m ready to start writing a whole new batch
of poems but these need a place to sleep. And this is
where they go.
There’s been a lot more talk recently, in the
performance poetry community about doing more
things like poetry videos, doing more recordings.
There’s been much more focus on how do we get some
recordings out there and as a result several poets back
in Ireland are starting to work with musicians or people
building soundscapes. I was working with a DJ building
soundscapes. I’ve worked with a cellist, I’m one of the
emcees in a hip hop band which is a five piece acid jazz
hip hop fusion band. That kind of work is so exciting
because things work differently on the page than they
do on the air. Words, as far as I’m concerned, are meant
to vibrate on the air. They’re meant to be out there.
They do something different on the page. In terms of
the book, they give people something [valuable] to take
home. [And] as artists [we’re able] to make money. The
point, really, is to make our living doing what we love.
I bought Kobus Moolman’s book the other night and
he asked, “You bought it?” I think he was thinking he
would just give me a copy but you know something,

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we print these up for a reason. We print these books

because we are trying to make a living doing what we
love. I buy friend’s books even if they are going to give
me one [for free]. I buy friend’s recordings. I know they
would give me one but we’re working artists. And if
we’re giving away our stuff as working artists then we
aren’t going to be able to be working artists. I pay to get
into friends gigs, because you’re a working artist.
But there has been more talk about how we push
this in a different direction. Around how do we put
out recordings. Of course, putting out a recording
as a spoken word artist is a tricky thing because I
know that the records that I’ve heard which are just
people reading their work, I don’t come back to those
recordings too often. I think that the recordings that
I’ve found most valid as a listener and as a performer
are those recordings that do what I call, opening up
the poetry. People who will find people who will build
soundscapes for them or musicians to work with are
adding another layer on it. I have presented so much
spoken word to audiences who will just flat out say they
don’t like poetry. It was presented to them, when they
children, in a way that seemed dry or what have you
and they just say, “no I don’t like that stuff.” One of the
best complements that I and other poets on the Irish
scene have gotten, and I’ve gotten this quiet a few times,
people have come up and said “I actually don’t like
poetry, but I liked that”. And part of it has been because
when you bring something to performance [in] the way
you move or the sound of your words in the air or the
passion of your voice or just your presence, people feel
that. And also people respond in a different way to the
hip hop. I do stuff with the live band because music for
some reason is easier for people to slip into than words.
So when words are coupled with music, people feel like
they have a gateway into it and sometimes it just makes
it easier for people to hang on to the words. Also with

24
 Poetry Potion

hip hop there’s a lot more refrains and choruses so

people feel like they can join in.
I love doing the hip hop because that’s when I get
people to join me on the chorus “I want everybody to
jump in the air and repeat this” but it doesn’t happen so
much with my spoken word stuff. I’ve heard people do
that call and response stuff in their spoken words. Ian
Kamau is an example. He’s got this thing, “somebody
say Joy? Joy! Somebody say Love? Love.” But hip hop
is where I do that. And I feel that people feel a little
bit safer or [they have] a little bit more access to spoken
word with music.
I’ve have seen people’s response to spoken word
CDs that sort of include some music element. The CDs
that I keep going back to are the ones that open it
up. I honestly think that CDs with just [the] voice [are]
boring. I really do, I know that’s a harsh thing to say
but no matter how good somebody is, I find that I just
doesn’t come back to those often.

Za: That’s probably the same reason why I would

never get an audiobook. It interferes with my thinking.
The sound with the poetry can sometimes just go very
wrong.
Raven: oh it can

Za: I wanna sit with the words, that’s why I like the
books. I wanna sit with the words and think on top of
the words.
Raven: I’m a very word heavy poet and I’ve learned
over time to really slow down my performance and
give people a chance to absorb things. I’ll juxtapose
a lot of different images in rapid fire quite often. I’ll
hit segments where I’m going from this idea to this

25
 Poetry Profile

idea and I’m linking them all together. If you’re sitting

listening, you’re still chewing on the number one idea
and I’m already on three and four. So the book actually,
and it’s a very good point, does allow people to sit down
and actually digest it. Because the only way you can
digest it live is if you hear someone five, six times. But
the book allows you to sit and take things at your own
pace.
I have a recording called a Hundred Years of Recorded
Poetry and it’s all these famous poets reading their work
- Sylvia Plath, Langston Hughes, Yeats. The thing I
found from listen them is that they are not performing
poets. They are using their voices as performing poets.
They were poets who wrote and someone said, “let’s
record you doing this.” Langston Hughes didn’t have a
great voice. I love his poetry, he’s one of my touchstones
but it kinda hurts to listen to him doing his own stuff.
It does.

Za: I’m going to avoid it then.

Raven: Yeats was tone deaf and he had this over the
top, sort of bombastic style of delivering his poetry that
was in keeping with the time but when you hear him
and his all over the place and it’s like “aw dude, turn
down the volume.” Sylvia Plath, I love her work but I
don’t like her delivery. The list on this recording is a lot
of people I love, which is why I got the recording to listen
to them. I have read Langston Hughes’ stuff to myself
because that’s another thing I do when I’m reading.
When I really enjoy a poem, I’ll read it aloud because I
wanna hear those words on the air. I wanna hear what
they sound like when they’re spoken. Langston Hughes
has this bebop rhythm even though he predated bebop.
He had a bebop rhythm before bebop happened. And
I love speaking his stuff. I don’t like hearing Langston

26
 Poetry Potion

do his stuff though. It’s awful, I hate to say it but it is.

Za: What are your thoughts about the younger

generation of poets who are coming up, entering poetry
mainly in performance. And a lot of them aren’t really
writing as such because they love the performance thing
so much. What are your thoughts on what you’ve heard
here and even back home?
Raven: I think that the one good thing that pop
music has done, is that it has gotten people into that
idea of performing, granted for celebrity, but when it
comes to people who are interested in doing poetry,
it has given those people the impetus to perform as
well as write. And you’re absolutely right, a lot of the
youngsters coming up on the scene wanna do it on the
stage and that’s why you’re seeing an increase in the
amount of performance poetry that’s happening, not
only here but also internationally. And I think that’s a
very exciting thing.
The thing that I do find disappointing is that because
of the popularity of slam. Slam sort of tripped itself
up because slam was started basically as a gimmick to
get people interested in spoken word because it was
fast and funny and all of this and as a result people
started coming back to spoken word because suddenly
it was exciting. And that was the purpose of slam. Slam
brought spoken word a certain amount of popularity
but as a result slam codified certain things. Quite often,
at least in the States, funny poets win slams.
It’s the other reason I don’t slam. I am not a funny
poet. I have one funny poem and a lot of times I’m the
only person who thinks it’s funny.
[Then] there is that slam delivery style, that slam
cadence that I got used to and got sick of hearing in the
States and I hear it in Ireland and I’ve heard it from

27
 Poetry Profile

some people [in SA]. And that’s the unfortunate part,

that when something was so vital to really increasing
the profile of an art form, becomes stale in itself. The
one thing I would like to see youngsters coming into
this scene doing is doing what they love and realising
that they don’t have to do it like other people have done
it. Because quite frankly, that slam cadence is played.
I have heard it so much that unless your words are
really intense I’m not going to even hear what you’re
saying because I feel like I’m listening to something
I’ve already heard before. And that’s a shame because
people have really good words but they haven’t focussed
on how to own the delivery. The other thing I’ve found
is that it’s a matter of confidence.
Again going back to the memorisation, I have been
really excited to see youths engaging that process of
memorising their word. I’ve seen people who read off
the page and are excellent at it but the ultimate, for
me, is to have all of your words here (points to his
mind) and to be able to deliver them from here (points
to the chest) and use your entire body doing it. So it’s
exciting to see people interested in slam and people
interested in actually memorising their work. I think
there’s something very valuable in it, in terms of just
education. How we learn to love language. How we
learn to be confident in our bodies. How we learn to
have confidence in our words and in our ability to stand
on a stage in front of people and own that space.
It’s one of the things, when I work with children or
people with intellectual disabilities, part of what I’m
teaching them is the craft of spoke word but the other
part is also about confidence and self—esteem because
to take that stage and own it, you need confidence.
You need to be solid in yourself and know who you
are. That is the value in poetry for young people;
particularly people coming from the “suffer culture.”

28
 Poetry Potion

Black Americans in the States, Africans here, the Irish

in their own country. It is so important for people
coming from these “suffer cultures” to be able to stand
centre stage and say “I have confidence in my body, I
have confidence in my voice and in the fact that I have
something important to tell you.”
Because it addresses things far beyond just getting
out there and saying some words. It’s about who we are.
Who I am.
There are a couple of places where I feel completely
confident in my life and that’s in my work as a
cinematographer and my work as a poet. I have no
doubt that I know what I’m doing and that I’m good.
And it’s a hard thing to say. It’s such a hard thing for
people to say, “I’m good, I deserves this space” and this
is one of the few places in my life where I can say it.
That feels good.

Za: From here on?

Raven: Quite frankly at this point in my life I
have no idea what’s going to happen. I don’t feel
like I’m ever going to make my living as a spoken
word artists. I’m interested in making my living as a
cinematographer as a matter of fact, I really consider
myself a cinematographer first and a spoken word artist
second.
But I will be doing this for a while.

29
 Poetry Profile

Poetry

30
Hand in Hand
Charl Landsberg

we arrived quite early for the show

your eyes welled, wet and weary with tears
worried what they would know
so you bit back both of our fears

we walked through that crowded theatre hall

afraid, you grabbed my hand after we’d kissed
that place packed to the rafters and wall to wall
we plunged both our fingers into a single fist

we held on, afraid of judging glares

unscathed we made it through the crowd
you led me down the red carpet stairs
forgive a heart for feeling proud

you’re no coward, have no shame

your sudden courage saw me through
of cowardice I am the one to blame
I couldn’t have done it without you
Life
Motena Tintswalo Cathrine Mathe

I guess what we have is a love-hate relationship

Sometimes I wish I could close my eyes and never see
you again
Sometimes I wish I had never met you and
Sometimes I just wish that I could be with you forever
But hey...you are life one never knows what to expect
from you.

32
 Poetry Potion

Love
Mapitsane

Feeling of joy and happiness

Tender moments of openness
Courageous weapon of new life
Spiritual healing of thoughts
Perpetual feelings of endurance
Adorable moments of life
Remarkable reminiscences in a lifetime
The spiritual concord of heart
The signatures within hearts
The weapon of peace
Electromagnet of joy
The unifier of soul
Salvation of anger
Redeemer of hatred
Conquer of joyful life
Joy is written in your walls
Joy is witnessed among hearts
Through love, spiritual healing is guaranteed
Love heals and delivers
Tolerate and admire sharing
Love is colour free
 Poetry

Love Hurts
Ravona

Red, pinks and all those sweet hues

The colours of love that may come to your view
Pelted purple is my love to you
Hands of sweet caress which offer you rest
Shoveled fists to teach you what’s best

Agape1 bestowed, blessed thee

Only a gape left in me
To pour out your precious red,
It was more than my heart that bled

What knows a bleeding heart

than to love
All I know is your love made my nose run red and my
body dead

Love is kind
Love is true
Jesus even died for You
Love warped my mind and turned me blue
I almost died for You

Mein tumse pyaar karta hoon2

Naan unnai kadhalikkiren3
Ngiyakuthanda4
I love you

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 Poetry Potion

Love in many forms

But all set to deform
A person,
Relief only lies in mortality
Lying there in your loving brutality
Love
Has only
Hurt.

1
Agape: One of Aristotle’s types of love, “unconditional love”,
usually between family.
2
Mein tumse pyaar karta hoon: Hindi
3
Naan unnai kadhalikkiren: Tamil
4
Ngiyakuthanda: Zulu All mean “I love you”, in my various
cultural influences.
 Poetry

The charmer
Ekerete Umoetok

He is known for his immaculate charm,

The beautiful ladies on his arm
And his multi-textured game
That caused his lascivious fame

He is always your man

Even if he is not your man
He is always the only man
That should be in your plan
So if you have a man
Lose him if you can

He is the smooth operator

The love generator
The lust instigator
The pleasure generator

He always does seem

As is every lady’s dream
As soon as he is seen
Provided she is lean

As soon as he touches her palm

She is sent to a place exciting and calm
Where there exist trees of palm
And blue waters of pure calm

36
 Poetry Potion

Where her blissful mind may go

Is a place where love does flow
A tranquil paradise with the fellow
That she will eternally follow

As his quality of man is high

There is none other that is a tie
He is one you will never let by
The man you wish you could deny

But… as soon as your face

Leaves his inviting place
Another will fill your space
Then he will forget your face

So here’s the question

Why have an obsession
For one that always feels above you
And can never love you?
 Poetry

On the Flipside
Jeannie Wallace McKeown

If you wonder why I couldn’t stay

consider how it felt to me:
that you would have lovingly flayed
the skin from my body
made it into your night shade
light diffused around you through me

reached into my chest

caressing each rib
to remove my heart
for safekeeping
in your hands

That you would own my voice:

a ventriloquist’s doll, I would chant words
placed with infinite care on my tongue,
dance in patterns painstakingly choreographed
through the strings used to bind me

Understand that I had not understood

at the start
that what I offered was the least of intimacies

38
 Poetry Potion

Analgesia
Ashraf Booley

Pain numbs pain;

razor-blades and minora blades
bandage bleak memories
etched across blood-blotched skin -
where sagacity has gone astray.

Quavering and quivering

and voice arrested
in the dampening silence.

The morning sun blots up

a bed of tears -

gone.

Stains remain.

The aftermath of aches and pains,

and sometimes pleasure.

Still, a bed sheet full of stains remain.

After years of washing and scrubbing -

stains remain.
 Poetry

A Lady
Abdulmugheeth Petersen

My lady’s figure is all covered

Just her hands and her eyes may be seen
So others may think she is less beloved
For in no man’s sight she has been

Her face she hides behind a veil

So some say she is filled with pride
Of her fragrant scent she leaves no trail
But passions within her reside

Yet her reservedness my emotions move

To know the mystery behind the screen
A faithful lover in her may prove
To bring me to gardens watered green

For this is the lady whom I desire

More than those with passions like fire

40
 Poetry Potion

Peace of Mind
Moses Kilolo

I get lonely sometimes, and I seek you

Then we fight a little, when not making love

Most of the time I feel horrible after

Because I know I have not given you, any truth

Truth is what I desire, not only to give

But to receive and share, in delicate moments

Now that I am away from you for a while

I am at peace, because I am not a constant lie
 Poetry

On my own
Menzi Maseko

How can Love be dead?

And how do we go on
Keeping alive
This half life
In which we thrive
On borrowed time
Still haunted by these pale specters
In this dry white season
Defying nature’s reason
For why seasons come to pass

But Biko is dead and the nation is still bleeding

Love has fled and a people is still pleading
For a piece of the Devils pie
Mystified by the lie
Of the land
These paychecks
Our wages of sin
Our proof that we are democracies rejects

These salted tears

And wasted years
Mandela’s eternal smile
Our Taj Mahal
Yet Love is not for mahala
In cities, sprawling shack-lands and townships

42
 Poetry Potion

Where gold stalks platinum down freedom avenues

Here where patriarchs sell their daughters
For blood-sugar-sex-magic
I want to scream
To the resigned melody of A Love Supreme
But the echo of Biko’s dying jolt
Chokes my throat
Until my song wails like a degenerate wind
Or a discarded God crossing the universe on a solitary
boat ...
 Poetry

Can a poem ever die?

Amreen B. Shaikh

A poem is alive
like any being,
as it lives
its thoughts and feelings.

It is fed by emotions,
given beauty by the imagery
it creates,
and stays in the abode of words.

It speaks an untold story,

whispers a deep secret,
unfolds a mystery,
or impacts a revolution.

It boasts
its immortality,
which spreads its words
to cast an ever rising spirit.

But like every living being

A poem is also blessed a death.
And it dies
when it loses its meaning.

44
 Poetry Potion

Loving Me
Mercy Dhliwayo

If you do not tell me that you love me tonight

I truly will not mind
For I have accumulated
enough “I love yous” to conquer hatred
And build nations of love
“I love yous” enough to last a lifetime
and even lifetimes after this
So please,
Do not bother to tell me that you love me
Allow me to feel it
And touch it
Absorb it into my bones
Such that when I say “I love you too”
It is not as automatic as,
“fine thanks and how are you”
And when you love me
Let it not be as confining as redundant “I love yous”
Or as intimidating as overdue “we need to talks”
When you love me; let it be free,
and as natural as breathing
Let it be as fulfilling
as each movement that tickles my overgrown belly
each kick that lightens my soul
bearing testament to this life that will forever
be a token of my love for you.
Poetry Potion

46
 Poetry Potion

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 Q&A
A Cup o’
Gold by zamantungwa and Menzi Maseko

“Give your poems names. They are your children.”

Tumelo Khoza, on her facebook page, 22 January 2014.

One of these children, a poem titled “This Young

Man” plays with the nursery rhyme “This Old Man”.
A poem about reversing the roles and a woman
approaching a man she fancies…

“This young man

He played one
He played knick-knack on my tongue
With a knick-knack paddywhack
Give a girl a bone

48
 Poetry Potion

This young man came rolling home

…
May I recite by hear to you
And what’s hidden in it
Just 59 seconds of your time
Before I ask for your digits…”

Rustum Kozain has described her as a fearless poet,

a description that many who know her would agree
with. Her work be it in poetry or organizing, is about
challenging the norm, about being vocal and standing
up to be seen.

Though currently based in Chicago, USA, Tumelo is

still one half of the brain behind the poetry event Cup
O’ Though. She spoke to social and cultural activist
Mensa Maseko about her work in poetry.

Menzi Maseko: Where are you based right now and

are you still involved in any poetic activities?
Tumelo Khoza: I am currently based in Chicago,
IL, USA. Poetry has always been an art I am involved
in, wherever I go.

MM: What does poetry mean in your life?

TK: Poetry is to me, what breathing is to Man. Life.

MM: Do you think that as a poet on stage and on

the page, you are able to express the full range of your
thoughts and experiences?

49
 Q&A

TK: Most certainly. Through language (and all that

it encompasses), I am able to shape my thoughts and
experiences in poetry.

MM: I have noticed that you are very close to your

little sister, does family life play a significant part in
your work, if so, how so?
TK: Family is a part of me as a branch is part of
a tree. I cannot separate myself from family, and as I
grow older, I find that they are worth appreciating and
praising all the time. It’s important to me that they
know and understand how thankful I am to be part of
their tree.

MM: So being so far from home, how do you cope

homesickness?
TK: By writing. Writing and reflecting. I have found
socializing to be such a challenge, being in a country
where nobody knows you at all. I am getting there,
slowly but surely. Meeting a lot of people who remind
me of a lot of people back home. It’s heart-warming, and
with each encounter I have with enlightened people, I
do not feel the gap of being away from home.

MM: Have your skills as a qualified performing

artist expanded or limited your style of creating poetry?
TK: They have enhanced my style completely, and
they continue to do so in ways I cannot fathom. When
I was in university, one professor, Prof. Deborah Lütge,
told us that every artist has their own signature, just
as everybody is an individual. That made sense to me.
I also acknowledged that I do have a signature as an
artist.

50
 Poetry Potion

MM: Do you still remember the first poem your

ever wrote or recited?
TK: I do. It was a poem dedicated to my three best
friends at the time. I was 11 years old, in Grade 5. Not
once, back then, did I think that a door that leads to my
destiny had been opened.

MM: Do you ever experience the notorious writer’s

block and if so how do you overcome it?
TK: There’s no such thing as writer’s block. Every
poem is written at a time it is meant to be written.

MM: Has living in another country altered your

world-view or perspective in any way?
TK: Right now, I’d say that I am finding myself
appreciating my roots more than I did before. Because
I have so much time to write and reflect, I am able to
write detailed emails and have lengthy phone calls to
and with family and friends back home. If anything,
I want nothing more that to let the world know how
beautiful South Africa is. That’s not to say it does not
have its own flaws, but no country is perfect.

MM: South Africa’s poetry scene has expanded

very much lately; do you think that this has added
more quality or just quantity to the various sessions
mushrooming around?
TK: That’s a funny question. I have been told that
we may all write, but not all of us are writers. In the
same breath I will add, however, that there certainly
are some phenomenal poets in South Africa, across the

51
 Q&A

country. Wordsmiths who are impeccable in their craft;

who have readers and listeners in the palm of their
hands.

MM: As a co-founder of Tea Cup and organiser at

Cup O’ Thought, what challenges and opportunities
have you come across?
TK: Tea Cup was founded by Thando Mlambo and
I in 2011. It serves as a platform for artists in different
genres not just in Durban, but the rest of the country as
well. This, however, is not just limited to South Africa,
we have hosted artists from neighbouring countries and
from as far as Canada. We have encountered financial
problems, which we always seek to overcome. We
have been able to keep the shows running from our
own pockets, with the undeniable help from Alliance
Française de Durban, Ewok, Nosipho Mkhize, Lara
“Gemini Poet” Kwela, Poetry Africa and the phenomenal
support of the people who live in the beautiful city of
Durban. I can honestly say that we are blessed.

MM: About your recently published book and CD,

Roots of an Apple Tree (2013), do you have confidence that
having your voice heard and read would have a greater
or lesser impact on your audience?
TK: When I was growing up, I read a lot of poetry
books. I was also introduced to one of my favourite
poets through multimedia mediums such as television,
audio/CDs, radio, and the like. I wanted my work to be
available both on paper and in audio, as we are living
in a world that is forever progressing when it comes to
technological aspects. I also feel that people still read
and have bookshelves in their homes.

52
 Poetry Potion

MM: Is there any poet you would ever hope to

collaborate with on stage as a Spoken Word Artist:
It could be a poet, musician, illustrator or whichever
medium?
TK: Oh my goodness, there are so many. I would be
honoured, however, to share a stage with my mentor
of eight years now, Malika Ndlovu. She has been such
an inspiration to me since I met her in 2005. We are
comets in the same universe.
In the past year, Tumelo moved to Chicago where
she is working with children as an au pair. But despite
being away from home, she has kept herself busy by
connecting to the poetry community and working with
groups such as Generations of Progress and various
poetry sessions. She’s writing and performing and all we
can do is wait to see how her work will grow from these
new experiences. Hopefully soon, there’ll be another
collection of poetry or a CD. Follow her on Facebook
and Twitter to keep up to date.

53
 Poetry Seen
Jozi House
of Poetry:
Why don’t we write about love?

The first Jozi House of Poetry session of the year

took place on the 23rd of Feb at the Afrikan Freedom

54
 Poetry Potion

Station. Though the venue is smaller than their previous

venue, I’m glad they’ve moved the event here, the
Afrikan Freedom Station is a great space for creatives.
It’s a multimedia exhibition space: a gallery, a musical
and artistic space just on the edge of Sophiatown in
Westdene.
This session focused on Love, on writing or not
writing about love. Myesha Jenkins, Phillippa Yaa De
Villiers and Natalia Molebatsi shared their poetry and
discussed the various types of love that they explore
in their poetry. The love for friends and people you
respect, as expressed in a poem that Phillippa wrote
inspired by her mentor’s name, Keorapetse Kgositsile.
It ends with the lines:
“Whoever you are
Wherever you are
You are enough”

The love of nature and country as expressed in

Myesha’s Green:
“do you know green
Tzaneen green
Transkei green
Thohoyandou green”

The love for a lover and Natalia shared Music Man:

Like all natural beings do season in
and season out
music man i (will not stop)

Between discussion about what writing about love

means, feels, looks like and what we look for in a

55
 Poetry Seen

love poem, the audience shared their own poems. The

audience included known poets like Michelle Mcgrane
as well as poets sharing their poems for the first time
like Stanford Gibson. Poems shared include poems
written for marriage vows, poems for blue collar men,
nature, even poems about a love for justice and the
other side of love, when it breaks down.
This was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday
afternoon sharing poetry, learning from each other and
enjoying the most amazing red velvet cup cakes.
Jozi House of Poetry is a monthly event happening
ever last Sunday of the month at Afrikan Freedom
Station.

56
 Stockists
Buy our print editions from the following places.
• www.bookloversmarket.net
• Smashwords.com
• The Book Lounge in Cape Town
• Adams in Durban
• Menzi Maseko in Durban - menzi.maseko@gmail.
com, 083 246 1604
• Roots Restaurant and Gallery in Western Jabavu,
Soweto
• Street Hawkers Concept Store in Dube, Soweto

You can also order directly from us by emailing:

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57
 Writers Block
Toni Stuart’s The Silence That
Words Come From
The Silence That Words Come From writing workshop
series returns for 2014. The series will allow participants
to explore and play with voice and its expression.
Participants use writing and other creative exercises, to
stir and call forth the words within them, and discover
simple ways for expressing them. The aim is to discover
and explore your own voice, and various ways to express
it through words. When we are able to connect with
and use our own voice, words become like clay in our
hands.

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The workshop is open to anyone who is interested in

exploring poetry and creative writing as a tool for self-
expression. No previous writing experience is needed.
The exercises will benefit beginners and experienced
writers. The workshop will be facilitated by poet Toni
Stuart.

Dates: Thursday May 8 and Wednesdays May 14, 21,

28 and June 4 and 11
Time: 6pm - 9pm
Venue: Frank Joubert Art Centre, Claremont, Cape
Town
Cost: R900
To Book: Email tonistuart@gmail.com

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 Contributors
Charl Landsberg is a South African poet, musician,
and artist passionate about LGBTQI issues and the
various contexts that surround people within the
LGBTQI community.

Tintswalo is a 20 year old female from Pretoria. She

is a BA student at the University of Pretoria. Has zeal
for theatre, film and politics. In a nutshell she is: a
bottle filled with tons of bubbly potential waiting to be
popped.

Mapitsane Maila is a writer, programmer and

performer. Born in a village of maila mapitsane
situated in sekhukhune area(Limpopo province).
Works as a programmer in a telecommunication
company (software development) and he loves poetry
and writes it for fun.

Ravona is a lawyer by profession, and a struggling

artist by passion. A lover of poetry since an early age,
she has picked up the pen in an attempt to put her
thoughts into verse only in the past year. She mostly
writes from a personal perspective about the many
issues that seem to haunt women, or at the very least
her identity as a woman in the world.

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Ekerete was born in Nigeria and raised in several

African countries. Ekerete is an African poet/
economist based in Johannesburg. Having lived
and worked in several African countries including
Nigeria, Kenya, Mozambique, Zambia and South
Africa, Ekerete draws inspiration from his African
experiences to write poetry.

Jeannie Wallace McKeown lives in Grahamstown

in the heart of the Eastern Cape, and takes her
inspiration from both the wild beauty of the landscape
which surrounds her and from the inner workings of
the mind, heart and soul. She sees poetry as a means
to make sense of day by day life, and a way to store
moments in literary amber. Jeannie is a member of
the 2014 Rhodes University MA in Creative Writing
cohort.

Ashraf Booley reckons he’s a writer, but is still

finding his voice. He has dabbled in business
analysis, but soon re-channeled his focus to writing.
He considers himself quite the foodie (although
some will disagree) and likes his meat well-done (no
exceptions!). His writing is mostly inspired by his
personal struggles, and the struggles of others.

Abdulmugheeth holds a BA Degree with majors in

Psychology and English Literature from the University
of the Western Cape. He is a TEACH South Africa
alumnus and is studying towards a Postgraduate
Certificate in Education with the University of South
Africa. He writes for the Parliamentary Monitoring
Group on a part-time basis and in his free time he

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 Contributors

enjoys hiking through the Cape Peninsula Mountains,

spending time at the beach, travelling and touring. He
also likes classical literature, board games, street art,
good food and film.

Moses Kilolo is a fiction and poetry writer living and

working in Nairobi. Last year, he was selected and
participated in the Granta Workshop taught by two of
Best of Young British Novelists. He is working on a
long term poetry project for which he writes a poem
each day and hopes to carry on and perfect in ten
years. He is also an ardent book reviewer and blogs at
http://literarycues.wordpress.com/

Menzi Maseko is a socio-political and cultural

activist who works as a librarian at the BAT Centre
in Durban. He is passionate about creative writing,
nature and spirituality. An avid reader whose
essays and public speaking is influenced by Black
Consciousness and the restoration of Afrikan dignity.

Amreen B. Shaikh is an amateur poetess and

writes in leisure. A Web Designer by profession,
she has been working since a year, immediately,
after her graduation in the IT field. She blogs on
painttheworldwithwords.wordpress.com and has
received immense love from her fellow bloggers. Also,
her poems are published in few anthologies in the
UK. She has recently published her poetry e-book
“Thoughtfully Crafted Words” online and is receiving
good reviews on it.

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 Submissions
Guidelines
• Poetry Potion publishes poetry, reviews and
interviews online daily or weekly online and poet
profiles in print on a quarterly basis.

• All print editions are themed, a call to submit is

published quarterly online.

• www.poetrypotion.com - the website - has an open-

ended call for submissions for the A Poem A Day
challenge as well as other poems that don’t fit into
the print edition theme.

• We do not pay for poems published, yet. Poetry

Potion is a non-profit publication. We hope to
change that in the near future.

• We do not publish individual collections of poetry,

please refer to our website for poetry publishers if
you have a manuscript and want to be published.

• All copyright remains with the poet.

• Poetry is accepted in any language.

• If you submit in any language other than English

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 Poetry Potion

please provide an English translation of the poem

or submit a paragraph that explains what the
poem is about.

• Since the persons assessing the poem for

publication may not understand the language
the poem is submitted in, then poetrypotion.com
reserves the right not to consider work that comes
without a translation or an explanation paragraph.

• poetrypotion.com does not edit poetry - so make

sure that you submit your work in its final
publishable draft. DO NOT SUBMIT FIRST
DRAFTS, poems with spelling mistakes and
grammatical errors.

• poetrypotion.com accepts, poet profiles, essays,

think/opinion pieces and social commentary on
various subjects. Contact the editor if you’d like to
pitch one of the these.

• poetrypotion.com reserves the right to edit articles

for length, clarity and style.

• Submit your BEST work.

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 Poetry Potion

Index
Gaylard, R. P. 1999. An unusual freedom: Mbulelo
Mzamane. English Academy Review: Southern
African Journal of English Studies, 16(1);101-112,
10.1080/10131752.1999.10384461.

† New Poets of the Soweto Era: Van Wyk, Johennesse,

and Madingoane. Mbulelo V. Mzamane Research in
African Literatures, Vol. 19, No. 1, Special Issue on
Black South African Literature since 1976 (Spring,
1988); pp. 3-11

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