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    My Land: Bits & Pieces
    My Land: Bits & Pieces
    My Land: Bits & Pieces
    Ebook220 pages1 hour

    My Land: Bits & Pieces

    By Tswagare Namane

    ()

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    About this ebook

    This book is about nothing and everything at the same time: big people, small people, birth, death, happiness, sadness, war, peace, everything. It is my concept of poetry, the concept of a liberated minded liberated poetry. It is Pan African poetry, about African issues all over the world. It is about African beauty and a liberated look at the self. It is the poetry of a returned exile celebrating the beauty of his native land.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherXlibris UK
    Release dateAug 28, 2010
    ISBN9781453568026
    My Land: Bits & Pieces

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      Book preview

      My Land - Tswagare Namane

      Copyright © 2010 by Tswagare Namane.

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2010912850

      ISBN:Hardcover 978-1-4535-6801-9

      ISBN:Softcover 978-1-4535-6800-2

      ISBN:Ebook     978-1-4535-6802-6

      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:

      Xlibris Corporation

      0-800-644-6988

      www.xlibrispublishing.co.uk

      orders@xlibrispublishing.co.uk

      300862

      CONTENTS

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      THINK OF ME

      POST BURGLARY STRESS SYNDROME

      THE GRIPENS ARE HERE

      SWEET REMINDER

      A FIERCE STORM

      BEING WITH YOU

      TSUNAMI

      FALSE CIVILIZATION

      A BEQUEST

      ETERNALLY BLUE

      UPON A CHRISTMAS WALK IN MAFIKENG

      HOLIDAYING IN THE CAPE

      IN THE SHADOW OF OOM PAUL (Church Square—Pretoria)

      A YELLOW MOON SMILES AT ME

      A DANGEROUS SONG

      RUDE REMINDER

      IMPROVISATION

      CLAIMING THE LOST HERITAGE

      TAXI IN A JAM

      FREE JAZZ

      FULFILMENT

      UPON THE FIRST RAINS

      DRIVEN TO WALK THE WALK

      THE TRAVEL BLUES

      DOWNTOWN JOBURG

      TSHWANE

      TOWARDS DIVINITY

      A FORCED EQUALITY

      THE MINIBUS TAXI

      A COMMUTER’S NIGHTMARE

      FELINE LANDSCAPE

      A HOLIDAY IN KWAZULU-NATAL

      BRACING FOR THE NEW YEAR

      2006

      LONG DISTANCE TRAVEL

      BEFORE THE MIGHTY GRIP OF BOREDOM

      SONG BY THE FIRESIDE

      MY BAREST MINIMUMS

      GOD—Fact or Fiction

      A COMMON THREAD BINDS US ALL

      HILLBROW

      THOUGHTS OF YOU

      LOVED YOU

      TO MY LOVE UPON ANOTHER VALENTINE’S

      A TIT FOR TAT

      CHARLES TAYLOR

      HEARTBURN

      RECONCILIATION’S INSTINCT

      LOVE AD INFINITUM

      JOY AT REDISCOVERY

      UPON THE WINTER SOLSTICE

      COCKTAIL OF PLAQUES

      RWANDESE ORDEAL RELIVED (On Watching the History Channel)

      THE OLD SA

      HORRIFIC ACTS

      TOWARDS BELABELA (Warmbad)

      MOKOPANE (Potgietersrust)

      POLOKWANE CITY (Pietersburg)

      GAMBLERS WE ARE

      BECAUSE OF THE STRONG WOMEN AROUND US

      TRUTH

      THE AFRICAN

      ENTER THE SOMALI MAN

      EPIPHANY

      TO PHILLIP KGOSANA UPON HIS 70TH

      OMPHEMETSE DISIPI (Director—North West Film Festival)

      MADONNA & THE AFRICAN CHILD (Superstar Adopts Little Banda)

      FIRST RAINS

      RAIN WAS HERE

      BAYETE JABU KHANYILE

      THE TRIAL OF HUSSEIN IS NOW A FARCE

      ELUSIVE GLORY

      MPUMALANGA

      DANCING IN THE WIND

      JOHANNES IS DEAD

      SADDAM HUSSEIN HANGED

      DEATH OF THE SOUL (Visiting Mafikeng)

      IN THE WAKE OF POWER OUTAGES

      THE PRICE OF MERRYMAKING

      A WORD TONIC

      CAUGHT OUT IN THE SUN

      FREE STATE

      PRAYER TO ANCESTORS

      KGOSI ALBERT MOROKA

      WELCOME RAIN

      MORNING MR BEE

      COOPER

      A WATERFUL YEAR

      TO AN UNSUNG HEROINE

      UPON THE ADULT WORLD

      TO THE GODS

      HYPERVENTILATION

      PURGATORY

      A RAINBOW DEFILED

      TO PAINT A PORTRAIT OF BEAUTY

      SOUL = UNIVERSE INVERTED

      A HUMAN CAULDRON

      TRANCEMEDITATION (The way of the Shaman)

      INTELLIGENCE (The Way of the Jazzman)

      NIGHTMARE

      ON TOP OF THE WORLD

      MOTHO KE MOTHO KA BATHO

      EQUILIBRIUM SEEKING

      LOVE (The Way of the Gnostic)

      UPON THE DEATH OF ALAN SALINGA (composer of the famous song)

      A CRY

      MYANMAR

      ES’KIA MPHAHLELE IS NO MORE

      MOMENTOUS LOSS (Aunt Dihedile goes too)

      ANOTHER DEATH

      MONIKA

      UPON BARAKA’S TRUIMPH

      MAKEBA OF THE PEOPLE (Upon News of her death)

      BHEKI MSELEKU (Pianist Extraordinaire Dead at 53)

      THE IRONY IN VICTORY

      THE TRUMPET

      THE BLING OF OPULENCE

      LIKE A JAPANESE MASTER

      DITLOGOLO TSAME/MY SISTER’S KIDS Tumi & Kele

      THE BEAUTY OF PAIN

      REINCARNATING GOD

      ANOTHER LIFE

      BRAND LESLEY

      PHANDI

      RED ROSE ANNOUNCES SUMMER

      THE BULLHORN IS SILENCED

      DEAR MOMENT

      THE SOUTH AFRICAN DREAM

      LOVE

      INTIMATION FROM ABDULLAH (The Piano Maestro)

      RETURN OF WHORISH WAYS (Mafikeng 2009)

      THE AFRICAN IDEA

      LET US WORK WITH NATURE

      WHO WE ARE

      IT’S TIME TO SAY HELLO (A theme from Sidney Mokgoatsane)

      UPON THE EARTHQUAKE IN HAITI

      UNCLE MALEHO IS DEAD

      DENNIS BRUTUS

      VISITING THE EASTERN CAPE (with Sipho & Dee)

      TERREBLANCHE IS KILLED

      SPIRITUAL GROWTH

      TWO WORLDS

      WHO DIED FOR OUR FREEDOM (Read at the memorial of Edwin Makoti in Dar es Salaam, 1989)

      A RURAL SUBURB CLOGGED (Golfview 2010)

      REMINISCENCES (for Thato Bereng)

      KIMBERLY OF DIAMONDS

      THE SILENCE OF THE VUVUZELAS

      MISSIONARY POSITION (Aboard SAA Express)

      PARENTS

      MO-ISA° (Etched upon a Rose-atta Stone)

      IT WAS A RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

      MENUTRI, UPON THE PASSING OF YOUR PA

      DEDICATION

      Malaika my dear friend you left me quite unexpectedly,

      our hearts still pregnant with restless dream and our

      hopes green for even greater adventures. This is libation

      to you and the greats around you. Your passion and

      talent at dramatic expression, your unbridled love for the

      written word, remain unsurpassed in my encounters.

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      First I acknowledge the spirit of my departed father that continues to protect and guide me in all I do. My family has borne the main blow of all the work contained here: my mum—Serongoane of Bo-Mpshe, wife—Bonolo of Bo-Makgothi, the kids—Babi, Taemi, Somi, Tlami, Tumi, Kele, Kenny, Matshediso, Karabo, Phum-phum and currently the last of them all, Tshelos. Poetry is a curse and not a gift; and your collective warmth is the energy that fires me to sustain through the thankless task. My dear friend Sipho Bavuma—you continue to sustain me intellectually; Menutri Khet Khem, my literary mate out there in the colder climes; and the young and rising Africa-minded poets—Phalafala Aphane and Keaoboka oorra Molomo, out of the dialogue with whom my creative clarity emerges. Without

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