south african poetry Archivi - One Global Voice

Xabiso Vili sul palco di "Parole in folle" il 15 ottobre 2023 a Padova, foto della redazione

Light, “Tonight, I am the James Webb Telescope”

23 Novembre 20235 Dicembre 2023 Redazione

This previously unreleased poem composed by Xabiso Vili for “Parole in folle” is a gem. And as a gem it shines to lighten the dark. The darkness of the universe explored by the infrared technology of James Webb telescope – the biggest to be ever launched in space. As the telescope receives information about the origin of stars and galaxies, the author open his arms wide and lets memories visit him from the past, bringing him in a dimension where all things has no beginning and no end, in a light that is pulsing with life.

“Nathi’s Eulogy”, yet dying stay contagious

23 Novembre 20235 Dicembre 2023 Redazione

Often suicide deaths are surrounded by silence, by the shame induced by a loved one’s refusal to live. Relatives, friends begin to talk about tiredness, s/he “was tired of living” people use to say. This poem is a rebellious act against such useless, harmful tactfulness. Truth is necessary and healing, saying “suicide instead of tired” is necessary as reading the signs of a deep depression; this is what Xabiso Vili’s verses suggest. In order to save ourselves, our loved ones and all the people like Nathi, those brotherly friends we’d have never wanted to lose that way.

Xabiso Vili sul palco di Parole in folle a Padova il 15 ottobre 2023. Foto della redazione

“Forget How to Die”, fighting against surrender

23 Novembre 20235 Dicembre 2023 Redazione

In this laic homely, the author speaks to the people attending a funeral – the umpteenth. Suicides follow one another, each time in different circumstances: nooses, bullets, cuts… So, this imaginary officiant tells the crowd that we are here riunited to forget how to die and to remember what is there inside us that keeps us going. And makes us declare “I’m ready to wrestle, bring your god and your death. If I lose, don’t you dare lay me to rest. Because my spirit is pissed and he’s fighting next.”

Abigail George, when the word confronts the darkness of paranoia

4 Gennaio 202115 Settembre 2022 Redazione

“Please help revise the jalapeños and Theodore Roethke” is the title of this poem that introduces us into an unusual yet familiar world. It is a wild territory where reality and dreams meet, where everyday elements remind us of their symbolic dimension and where the voices in our heads start a dialogue with the voices of authors whose books we have read or composers whose music we have listened to. Far from being a mere juxtaposition of images and sounds, Abigail George’s is an accurately structured poem that reveals the struggle for mental well-being and for becoming an independent, emotionally stable woman.

“Like a candle in the wind”, so we blow out the flame of our life

27 Novembre 202027 Novembre 2020 Redazione

“It’s so difficult, this living thing / two decades sometimes / are more than one can bear”, this is the beginning of this moving poem composed about the sudden death of a very young and talented poet. It is the author herself to explain it, vangile gantsho, South African poet and healer who started to write and create at a young age and developed an interest into confessional and political writing. Although “some scars are too deep / even for poetry”, this poem enlightens the darkest emotions of the human soul that can lead to suicide, a choice no one should quickly label as coward and selfish, the author says.