The poets featured this week are Webster Kamaloni, Fredah Nkonde, Paul Phillips, Bwalya Kazungo, Richard Likumba and Barney Kanjela.
Fear
Webster Kamaloni
But rather the judgment that something is more important than fear
Fear in human nature causes us to start slacking off at our moment of greatest accomplishment.
Whatever course you decided upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong.
Fear arises and tempts you to believe that your critics are right
Fear has no power over you other than that which you give it.
Over his own fears is all powerful
Cos no one can know what he can do until he tries.
Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back
For the most part, fear is nothing but an illusion.
Never fear shadows; they simply mean there’s a light somewhere nearby.
Fredah Nkonde
My body wakes up in the morn
Wanting to do good things for every other body
Webster Kamaloni
Courage is not the absence of fear
But rather the judgment that something is more important than fear
Fear in human nature causes us to start slacking off at our moment of greatest accomplishment.
Whatever course you decided upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong.
Fear arises and tempts you to believe that your critics are right
Fear has no power over you other than that which you give it.
He who gains victory over other men is strong; but he who gains victory
Over his own fears is all powerful
Cos no one can know what he can do until he tries.
Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back
For the most part, fear is nothing but an illusion.
Never fear shadows; they simply mean there’s a light somewhere nearby.
Body as God’s Temple
Fredah Nkonde
My body is god’s temple
My body wakes up in the morn
Wanting to do good things for every other body
Wanting to bath, eat, exercise – God’s temple.
My body wants to eat at noon
Wanting to have a siesta after noon – God’s temple
My body wants to eat again at night
Wanting sex after eating with my spouse
Wanting to sleep at night
That is fine – God’s temple
When my body wants sex with every other body each time I think of the opposite sex
Not God’s temple
When my body wants marijuana / cocaine, LSD each time I feel like beating up every other body except my own
Not God’s temple
When my body tells me I should infect others with HIV because I do not want to die alone
Not God’s temple
Or perhaps, God does not mind which body should be his temple.
Paul Phillips
I look at the great big world around me
To see that climate change is such a worry.
I read the papers – the population
Has increased by yet another billion
The TV carries pictures every night
Of leaders who won’t quit without a fight.
I listen to the news on many a station
And hear of slaughter – caused by religion
All this, and more that yet is still to be,
Fills me with dread fear deep down inside me.
But wait – for many great big companies
Are investing in new technologies
The middle class of where I now call home,
Have families of three – or two – or one.
Several nations now have won the fight
To oust their leaders and put them to flight.
All great religions talk of love and peace.
So surely all this hate must sometime cease
I look to myself – and what do I see?
A flicker of hope, deep down inside me.
Cold War
Bwalya Kazungo
What we are witnessing, Is the beginning of the cold war
The passing of one’s ideological friendship
We are clearly disillusioned
We are on the verge of turning our backs on the state of politics and politicians
For we have drowned in promises, Promises which hardly come
As our politicians maintain a fragile democratic friendship
The disintegrated friendship.
I try to size up with what undeniably is an emergency
Yes, the situation is becoming a little bit more than a heap of ruins
I probe beneath the surface and point between current events
And find that power is separatism of time with no matter or regard to other rags
The rags of friendship and the philosophy behind them
The war still is
The breakdown masquerades as a breakup
This is the beginning of the cold war.
It was a Lie
Richard Likumba
I said I would be there for you
But it was a lie!
I said I shall always visit and care for you
But it was a lie!
I kept up appearances for my sake!
Yet it was a lie!
I said all that is mine you could take!
Still it was a lie!
That I desired to please was not a lie
My tension to release
Is not a lie
I know not now
What is a lie
Nor the formula of how
Not to lie.
Trepidation is not allowed
For one to lie
Yet all that have followed
Will tell hat this is not a lie!
Barney Kanjela
I travelled in many strange lands
Sojourned in thy lands of milk and honey
Despite thick umbers, no one greeted me
And neither did I see anyone greeting another
I decided to greet them in the hope they will learn to greet
In bewilderment they responded as if I had slapped them
The ambiance was on neon lights gleaming and twinkling
Cars, buses, trains, criss-crossed each other
That made my crossing of road a cryptic puzzle
Never heard of flyovers before
People also criss-crossed each other
Reading newspapers, and doing cross word puzzles as they walked
Even birds like pigeons were part of the panorama
With no worry of ending up in a pot.
I am back! How do I know that I am back?
Potholes, cracked roads and broken pavements
Monkey nut shells and other litter never found in my sojourn.
How do I know I am back?
Everyone is shaking hands and hugging exchanging germs
And continue loitering around Kaunda Square which is not square
How do I know I am back?
I see teenagers baring their backsides and chains dangling from all over
No one is reading a paper or doing a crossword puzzle
Turned a bend and found natives over football teams in strange lands; Man U, Arsenal or Chelsea
Turned again and saw people imbibing in corridors
While standing as if they are at a rally.
Definitely I am home
I can see a lot of teenagers sipping utujilijili
I AM HOME!
