Teeth of the Earth
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About this ebook
scintillating mix of fl avours with
shattering experiences from a variety of
locations that explore universal aspects such as
love, life, birth, death, religion, disillusionment,
politics, praise invocation and criticism of
society and persons, as well as some more specifi c
issues like prejudice and inequity penetrating
comments on social and philosophical events
ranging from the traditional rural tranquility
to urbanized life that is modernity in Africa.
The poems offer a banquet replete with irony,
piquancy, sadness and joy. They have an intensity
and a lightness of touch, the lines fl owing with
effortless and pleasing rhythm like the river silent in the night. One poem
gives much to think about in its own right, although the temptation to turn
the page to read the next one is overpowering. The imagery and feeling seem
to draw the reader into a deep sympathy and identifi cation of each poem
crackles with its own unique intelligence and revelatory experience. These are
just poems, poems of constant revelations that strengthen the bond between
us rather than alienating us. This book will be found invaluable by scholars,
pleasure and general readers. Savour it for knowledge enrichment.
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Teeth of the Earth - Phalafala Aphane
Copyright © 2010 by Phalafala Aphane.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2010913683
ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4535-7698-4
ISBN: Softcover 978-1-4535-7697-7
ISBN: Ebook 978-1-4535-7699-1
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
This book was printed in the United States of America.
To order additional copies of this book, contact:
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300856
Contents
1. Every petal of memory
2. My fading heritage
3. Tits of freedom
4. Words can sing
5. To become a Man
6. My Pearl
7. Eyes of the sky
8. Destiny
9. The Hungry City
10. Past, present and future
11. From the veranda
12. Harvesting season
13. In my Village
14. Consciousness
15. Memories . . .
16. Sunshine through the Eyes
17. Womb of time
18. Wake up, wake up
19. Grey hair
20. Born with brains
21. This dream
22. Old age
23. Survived the scorching sun
24. My Africa
25. Teeth of the earth
26. Spirit of delight
27. Prayer to the moon
28. Milk untouched
29. O, Rain
30. Birds of love
31. Blessing in the sun
32. Beyond the grave
33. This Twisted Poem
34. Song for my homeland
35. My birth
36. My Angelina
37. Archival feast
38. Raindrops
39. Boyhood memory
40. Mountains remain
41. Mama Ramokone
42. The bones of the soil
43. The locust
44. Reminiscence
45. Change of Faces
46. Power of a gesture
47. Cry for the unborn
48. Xenophobia
49. Lover’s dialogue
50. Aftertears
51. Eclipse of love
52. The creative dreamer
53. UnAfrikan Mind
54. How will it rain again
55. She’s a mom
56. Paradox of growth
57. A Letter to my ancestors
58. Echoes and Whispers
59. The death I wish to die
60. True face of an elephant
61. Joy is my Song
62. Showbiz
63. Silenced years
64. Generation today
65. This quiet dust
66. Deculturalisation
67. Ageing without pain
68. Homage
69. This Child
70. Sexy poem
71. If . . .
72. The Rain Queen
73. I is for Innocent
74. Griots of African Renaissance
75. City Robbery
76. Romancing the shadow
77. Ritual to unrest graves
78. Mother woman
79. Beautiful love
80. Born an albino
81. Funny ha, haa . . .!
82. A lament to my father
83. What kind of a Son
84. Interview with the blind man
85. Poems on music
86. Shall I Tell My President
87. A toast to the great Mattera
88. My Flower girl
89. Bones Speak
90. In memoriam
91. The voice of exile
92. Not to speak
93. Azania and truth
94. Truth must dictate
95. Massacre of my Soul
96. In the age of lies
97. Born before Shakespeare
98. No rain, no rainbow
99. Rural boy
100. Things unsaid
101. Painted Faces
102. Storyteller
103. Heart’s eye
104. Death of the author
105. Dreams and Drums
106. It is written
107. Housewife
108. Exile is not my home
109. Roots of my initiation
110. Nature art
111. Will she ever return?
112. Crown of green
113. Kraal of my ivory soul
114. For thinking
115. The marking ink
116. A slice of wedding cake
117. For oblivion
118. Jungle of weeds
119. Invocation
120. Blossom flowers
121. Under another sky
122. A thief and a witch
123. Dead ideology
124. Horn blower
125. Fluorescent thread
126. Fragments
127. On the periphery
128. Talons of life
129. In the Name of Mandela
130. Firewood
131. The Sun
132. Reunited siblings
133. White Power in Black Face
134. Away from my father
135. Who knows tomorrow
136. Bald of thoughts
137. Ha! God in the Book
138. Oh, Brother!
139. The Swallow
140. The crowed world
141. Grass suffers
142. Like the wizard
143. What a blow
144. The Beauty of Cosmos
145. The amorphous Virus
146. Premonition
147. Nothing remains
148. Warrior scholar
149. Blind Ambition
150. O, stolen heart
151. Anthem
152. The Music of Clouds
153. Our Milky Way
154. Drug abuse
155. Kiss sensations
156. This ineffable star
Dedication
To my parents Mr. Lesiba and Mrs. Ramokone Aphane who have already passed this world, but whose remains still nourish the soil of my umbilical cord, for instilling into my infant mind a sense of responsibility which has thrived and proved potent synthesis ever since. As the saying goes: Where the front hoof of a cow has trod, there shall the back hoof tread.
Acknowledgements
WITHOUT THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE, this poetry book could never have been written and completed:
My three elder brothers; Philemon, Abram, and Daniel, without your direct and indirect support, mobility would have been impossible. Also your faith in me has been an ocean of encouragement. Not excluding my young sister Ntswaki: thank for sharing wonderful memories of our mother. I just imagine how difficult and melancholic it was for our mother who worked as a kitchen-girl or and a farm-worker—after the death of our father—to support my brother, Matsobane aged eight, myself aged six and you aged two by then. Like the brave lioness, she fought with everything in her power to be who we are today without divorcing our father’s grave. Only that in itself reveals her true character traits to us.
Mr Abram Mohlatlole that you opened the doors of your beautiful heart and so charmingly entertained me with this and that, restored my faith in humanity again in my difficult times when no-one was there to help me.
Mr Walter Chakela: your unshaken belief in me over the years, has enabled me to write books such as this one. You are a giant of a man who taught me a lesson in fraternity.
The editor of this poetry has approached the task with an open mind. He has not allowed himself to be influenced by any theory of what a poem should be—except that which requires that a poem should be within the bounds of poetry. His enthusiasm for this book was so huge that it re-charged and re-activated my batteries.
Isn’t it odd that the epitome of man’s inhumanity to man also produced the epitome of man’s nobility? It is through your inspiration that my struggle to change myself and my country is as the same as my struggle to change this type of inhumanity world without sacrificing my humanity at the altar of desperation. Meteors are called meteorites when they land on earth, maybe I shall be counted among these fortunate meteors before and after dawn. Clouds are made by mountains but