Saving Water

Allan Kolski Horwitz

Description

These poems cover many different states of mind and situations and are deeply rooted in South Africa but also travel to other continents. A strong historical consciousness is mixed with different examples of violence and dispossession as well as an awareness of subconscious associations so that the political and the surreal intermingle - the brutalities of war and exploitation are softened by the tenderness of love. Stylistically inventive, it explores news forms while striving for an overall musicality.

Sujets

• Littérature Africaine
• Littérature Africaine

Informations

• Publié par: Botsotso Publishing
• Date de parution: 29 décembre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781990922114
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

SAVING WATER

Allan Kolski Horwitz

First published by Botsotso Publishing Box 30952, Braamfontein, 2017, South Africa Email: [e-mail]

Poems © Allan Kolski Horwitz

ISBN: 0-620-35444-5

Many of these poems (in the current or earlier versions) have previously appeared in the following magazines/anthologies/collections/websites: Bliksem, Botsotso, Cambridge Poetry Review, Carapace, Donga, Dirty Washing, Fidelities, Green Dragon, Greetings Emsawawa, The Heart in Exile, Illuminations, Il Vascello di Carta, Kotaz, Leaves to a Tree, Litnet, New Coin, Purple Light Mirror in the Mud, Rattapallax, Staffrider, Southern Rain, Timbila, Throbbing Ink, We Jive like This

The poet wishes to thank the National Arts Council of South Africa for their support.

Cover & text design and layout: Anna Anuradhá Varney Cover drawing: Allan Kolski Horwitz

CONTENTS

The Bride Jacaranda, Blue and Purple Carpet Voyager The Rhythm of Creation Perfects Little People, Big People Xmas Day: Two Deaths and a Racist Empty Bellies Tremble Kareedouw Road The Street and the Single Sorrow All No Two Wakings the Same 4 July 1999 At Bhekapansi Pan From the Tips of Blackened Branches In Memoriam: Molelekwa, Kerkorrel Danger: Night Bathing Prohibited Photograph of a Man in Baghdad The Wall has Fallen Vibrations Festival Kweschinns 4 Wurld Insanitee Day Reaganomics Grahamstown Band Black and Red Venus The Birds at My Window During the Drought First Rank Rose Black Mud Spring Rain 06/01/02 Power Roots I Saw You at the Fence Before Resuming War Eternal Honey Surely At Last Highveld Winter, Listening to Um Kalsum Vessels in the Temple The Rewards of Climbing Rare Antennae for the Race Amsterdam: Photographic Exhibition Compulsion She Watches a Man Late at Night Receiver For Vukin before Your Birth What are Your Politics? Netta The Test of the Enemy

6 7 8 9 10 12 13 14 16 17 18 19 20 22 23 24 26 28 29 30 31 32 34 35 36 37 38 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64

3

4

Comrade Obsession Slinky or Not Mercy While It Thunders Abigail Deliverance How Still He Would Lie Dream of the Looms Swan of Lisbon Rolling Downpour He Takes Her Hand Dunes Night of the Arabian Dagger Casualties In Time of Illness My Father on His Back/Rack Solly Khubekha Art Made These Poems Sing Along the Promenade Sometimes the Veil For Isabella Basking on Top Many Years from Now I Bake for You Rembrandt Solitude Tuesday, 3rd January Children Screaming Returning from Swaziland Mossel Bay Morning Mayibuye Africa To the Memory of the 20 COSATU Members of Parliament Another Day in RSA Recording of a Dark Rural Angel Burning Sing, Dolphin Drizzle and Smoke What Colour Flight: SA 473 All Whites are Racists Green Yeoville To Anna Blommetjie Wimpy, Harrismith Koos and the Foreign Marxist Attack Waking Up with the Rain In Running Away I Come Closer Wish Cosmos Philip

65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 84 86 88 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 124 126 127 128 129 130

Waiting for Nomusa Talk Raga Rush The Emperor Coffee in Tel-Aviv Tea at the Damascus Gate Celebrating Star Pattern Boy Tales The Protector Vleis Hotel in Stilfontein Children Have So Much Time Goya Love Comes to Shanty Towns White in the Embers Ripple Listening to a Recording of Vladimir Horowitz Cruising Felicia Stanley Clarke’s Bass Guitar Do Not Be Angry Exhibition of Marlene Dumas It is Late Now New York, 18 August 1993 Peten, Guatemal Ruins We Held Back Sunset Where the Ferries Cross Pent Up Penthouse On the River To Reach Enquiry The Test of True Understanding Blocked Maritzburg Blues A Cloud Passes Autumn: Near a Squatter Camp Festival of Water Holocaust Day The Many Faces of Whitey Boots Start to Make Sense Kei-brown Destiny Red Moon Karroo Collision On the Road from the Wild Coast Casino The Ballad of Lewis and Els In Line of Love Loss and Gain, Scattering Thousands of Years Saving Water

131 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 156 158 159 160 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 175 176 177 178 179 180 182 184 185 186 188 189 190 191 192 197 198 199 200

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Saving Water

THE BRIDE

She is the bride of allah The bride of jesus She is the bride of elohim the king of hosts Of rocks and temples She is the bride of a man who does not appreciate her; he ignores her She is the bride of a man who honours her; he smiles with respect She is the bride of a man who loves and desires her; he treasures her beauty She is the bride of a man who defiles her; he claims she wants to be raped She is the bride of a man who adores her but is impotent; he buys her gifts She is the bride of a man who deserts her; he is a serial philanderer She is the bride of a man who wills her to die; he is disturbed by her power She is the bride of a man who makes her bear child after child; he sees her as expanding his influence

She is the bride of a man who shares the household duties; he is cheerful She is the bride of a man who will not let her work outside of the house; he is fearful of her independence She is the bride of a man who supports her; he is generous She is the bride of a man who belittles her: he is hunched and unsure with other men She is the bride of a man who kisses her and holds her hand in the street She is the bride of a man who slaps her in front of her family She is the bride of a man who brings her to joyful conception She is the bride of a man who forces himself on her without warning

She is the bride of allah The bride of elohim The bride of krishna She is the bride of jesus

She is my bride and I will try to defy the gods

Allan Kolski Horwitz

JACARANDA, BLUE AND PURPLE CARPET

Fleur in the sky at the level of trees the level of eyes open to the blue world beyond sight beyond imagining -mother of all nothingness and muchness blue-blue in which we do not find reflection blue-blue absorbs the birds and bees who do as they please especially when jacaranda weds jillaranda and they kiss purple violet petals I drive down these streets summer breeze blessing the hands that planted these trees -rhapsody in jacaranda/jillaranda time

7

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Saving Water

VOYAGER

He is on the road The trip will take several hours The landscape will change The light will change He will listen to music He will receive phone calls He will make phone calls He will receive and send sms’s

He will meditate on his life: Women Children Work Social games Procedures Flirtations Political brutalities Art Art Art

He phones his love once more to tell her He wants to feel her lips on his lips His hands on her hips Hands on her woman’s hips Feel the skin slide The hand glide

He is on the road They laugh together and are warm

Allan Kolski Horwitz

THE RHYTHM OF CREATION PERFECTS

Flock of white birds One waving darting bird Flight A flock of one Bird A flowing of white birds

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