On the day after Nelson Mandela died, an inter-faith prayer service was held on the steps of the City Hall … Read More
Turning swords into sonnets
Extract from launch speech of Africa Ablaze! and Horison The poems in Africa Ablaze! are placed chronologically. They are anchored … Read More
Ingqanga ifile:The Bateleur is dead. Praise Poem to Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela 1918-2013
Ingqanga ifile The Bateleur is dead Yazalwa sekusaziwa ukuba iyakuphelela phi na He was born with his destiny written for … Read More
Poems for imprisoned youths
On Saturday, I delivered poems to a prison. Walking through the first set of double gates, I sensed a strange … Read More
Horison: An extract
Skyline is a novel that ‘gives voice’ to the many people who have no voice – former conscipts of the … Read More
Reading poems at Frankfurt Book Fair
My paternal grandparents were victims of the Holocaust. My grandmother was transported through Theresienstadt to a concentration camp, probably Bergen … Read More
A discarded Christ-figure
There is no dignity to mass graves. They are neither marked nor noted on maps. The bush is expected to … Read More
Shooting from the hip
The manuscript Africa Ablaze! is now spread out upon the drawing table, under … Read More
Reading Aubade by Jeremy Gordin
Compilation of Africa Ablaze! has been a moving experience. I worked with the words of military strategists, commanding officers, warriors, … Read More
The Iliad of Homer in Africa
War is an enduring component of our lives. It repeats and repeats – methodically, systematically and predictably, giving the grim … Read More
Can you stop war with poetry?
I’ve just completed compilation of an anthology of war poems and prose pieces, titled Africa Ablaze! The contents glance across … Read More
Reflecting on the Song of Solomon at the First McGregor Poetry Festival
The town of McGregor recently presented wall-to-wall and street-to-street poetry as the whole town ‘came out’ to become South Africa’s … Read More
Reading a poem by Margaret Epstein to Nguni cattle
The sun was just about to set. The trees of the nearby eucalyptus forest were a-roaring, as fierce cold … Read More
Pearlie Theron chats to Patricia Schonstein following the launch of Africa! My Africa!
The encounter took place in the former premises of Clarke’s Bookshop in Long Street. This followed the removal of all … Read More
Africa! My Africa! launched at Clarke’s Bookshop
The Cape Town launch of Africa! My Africa! was magnificent. Held in the empty, former premises of Clarkes Bookshop in … Read More
Reading Hugh Hodge aloud on the London Underground
People were going by at a fast pace. Some were running to catch their trains. There was a sense of … Read More
Reading Robert Berold aloud on the London Underground
It was not quite rush hour. Most commuters continued with their own thoughts or read newspapers. Two men, strangers to … Read More
Reading Haroon Aziz in London
Walking along the Thames, the sky was that gorgeous grey-blue-white of London and the air was wet. Passers-by were preoccupied, … Read More
Reading Ithaca on the closing day of 2012
Sometimes a poem will take a lifetime to arrive. And when it finally comes, you may wonder why it took … Read More
Reading Norman Clothier and Uys Krige in the vacated, former premises of Clarke’s Bookshop in Long Street
I met Antony Clarke in 1975, in his bookshop in Long Street, when I first moved to Cape Town. One … Read More
Reading for The Imprisoned Writer
One correctly imagines the Imprisoned Writer to be published and well-known; a journalist, poet or novelist whose words unsettle regimes, … Read More
Å lesa Det ukjende barnet i ei bakgate i Cape Town
Etter fyrste verdskrigen skapte Storbritannia The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior i Westminster Abbey. Frankrike plasserte La Tombe du Soldat … Read More
Reading The Unknown Child in a back-street of Cape Town
After the First World War, Britain created the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey. France placed La Tombe … Read More
