Still Life

There have been calls for us to include a poetry section on our website and as an « essai » we post a poem by award winning Zimbabwean writer and one of the youngest winners of the Intwasa Prize, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma. Let us know what you think about a poetry section and about her poem in the comments section.

 

Still Life

There is a need to defy
Breath of life surer than death
Condenses across the life canvas
Thought and hope and struggle and dream
Glass of paint shatters across the still life
Violence shimmers in the background
Snap!
You hear it?
Subtle soft
Heart breaking
Dream breaking
Thought breaking
Struggle swelling
Breaking so unobtrusive
Ripple underfoot
The people shadows in the foreground
Loudest shadows you ever saw
Silhouettes that eclipse the painting
Smudged with shaky hand
Fingering bulk of accusation
Casting eye at the moment of the fall
For our own lives are not satire enough for us
More comforting to look without
Search for the trouble of another
Cradle it
Let it suckle on the nipple
Wrinkled mound of hope
On the sagging breasts of sorrow

 

 

 

For more literary delights from Novuyo hop on over to her blog.

Novuyo Rosa Tshuma or Vuyo as she is also known is the 2009 receipient of the Intwasa Literary Award making her one the youngest Zimbabweans ever to win it. She has been published in several anthologies including British Council Zimbabwe’s Echoes of Young Voices project, & « A Life in Full and Other Stories », a Caine Prize Anthology.

She has also participated in a number of international workshops including the Caine Prize Workshop, Kenya 2010; the Farafina Trust Workshop, Lagos Nigeria 2010 and British Council’s Identity & Diversity Workshop in Zambia, 2007.