Do catch yourself drawing

See the image enter from the backdoor and proceed to the foyer, to the main living area. Make it part of the new day. Make it count and breathe. Be sure to sharpen the pencils, get the heat on, switch the light on, get the cobwebs off the eye. Let the dog's breathless begging for a walk in the park not interfere. Teatime too can wait.

La Caravane de la Poésie

Anjie Krog traveled from Cape Town to Dakar, to Goree Island, then on to Kaolock, Kita, Segou, Mopti and finally she reached Timbuktu. Her journey is described in A Change of Tongue.

The poems come tumbling from the poets' lips and hips. They dance and speak in tongues, african style. One says:

we are the carpenters of memory
we plane words
we are the masters - not of creation
but of the transmission of the soul
to see the word pass in the foyer of language
with breath in its ribs

Another:
words create
other light
we work with light

Antjie:
my ears feather from peace and heat
not of being
but of becoming
many becomings
past lost and drifting spaces
many many becomings

Yet another poet speaks:
I write because I have learned to read sand and water
shadows clouds and the flight of birds
I write to catch myself on the edge of the world
to get my breath pause behold listen
I write because it is my way of being free

where we going man? don't know but we gotta go man

Marlene Dumas says i am what i art.
ia mwh ati art
iamwhatiart
traitahwmai

am i what i art
what art i, i am
art i what i am
am i art i what

art rat tar tra rta

Rian Malan se "Alien Inboorling"

Hier is die link om te lees oor Rian Malan se album wat ek in Stellenbosch gekoop het by die beste musiekwinkel ooit. 'n Goeie naam: Alien Inboorling. Dis ongeveer die gevoel wat jy kry as jy nou met jou studente praat oor Apartheid. Ja, om polities korrek te wees, moet ons eintlik oor onsself praat as Alien Inboorlinge.


Dan het ek op 'n keer die Kalahari Boere Orkes hoor speel in Rosendal, Oos-Vrystaat. Dis nou 'n dorp hoor. Twee kunsgallerye, 'n koffiekroeg, 'n hotel, en baie baie interesante mense!

here I am again, but in afrikaans

just a few weeks ago i met an old afrikaans friend i had not seen for 34 years. we used to speak afrikaans but now we are only speaking the language of our boere oorlog vyand. hoekom het dit nou gebeur?
toe ek onlangs in bloem was het ek vir PG du plessis hoor vertel oor sy nuwe boek, die fees van die ongenooides. dit was nou 'n ontnugtering. ek dag altyd mens moet maar net vergewe en ek vergeet natuurlik van die 'nooit vergeet' kant van die storie. sy hele boek gaan oor die 'unmentionable' gebeurtenisse gedurende die oorlog, die weeskinders, die aborsies en nog meer. toe dag ek weer aan die hele truth and reconciliation ding. mens moet waar wees, waar aan jou hele verlede as jy die toekoms met oop arms wil ontvang. toe besef ek ek moet nou maar weer iets in afrikaans skryf en lees, want my hersings het nou heeltemal stilgestaan in die afrikaanse domein. nou probeer ek leon rousseau se biografie van eugene marais 'die groot verlange' lees. maar ek sukkel so met afrikaans lees! het iemand anders ook die probleem?

mesostic

If you came this way
Thought you came for
a husk of meaning
and every phrase
all shall be well
not cease from exploration
start from anywhere
to arrive where we
started

between two waves of the sea
which was the beginning
a condition of complete
simplicity
at the sea jaws
when you leave the rough road
complete consort dancing