Reitumetse Johnson is a director of Azali Nuru Development agency
based in Ateridgeville. We work with youth and the general public on
developing and implement poetry sessions and workshops around Tshwane,
in schools and other places. I have also been involved in poetic
theatre, on a show called decades which ran last year at the state
theatre.
My work is more on nature and and human emotions, i try to appreciate,
quetion and visualize the coming amaze. I also write children books.
Hope you enjoy my offering
One Love
Reitumetse Johnson
_____
State of being
How does life know how to live?
In the thin bodied flesh
Permeated by ashes of my indecency
How do I find joy?
In the cacophony of my own heart
Where we are live to be love,
Yet we become hate
We become violence
We become death
How does life know how to live?
The redness of pain pours blood of a thousand murdered generations
In anger, jealousy and doubt
Wiping humanity like boiling waters
Underneath the earth
Raising the clenched fist to torture our families
Instead of freedom and peace
Death is a new definition of Freedom
Each birth of the sun
Each breath of the gun
Each track I run
Each black teach one
Each love is enough
At least with each I can/ we can dream to be one
Graze in ocean sky
Parade in the roughness that mirror heaven right here on earth
Serenade with sedating sunrise, moonset jazz
Pave and wave at last night bliss and blander
Everyday life lives in a livable pace
But how does life know how to live
How do I learn to live like life in a livable pace?
– End –
Sometimes
When the sober mind enquires the crevasses
Of this vast human life,
Movements of myriad styles,
Rituals and habits,
Conversations with God
And the birth of a new moon, new sun
“A new state of mind”
Curtis Mayfield has called it,
The fragrances of lingo,
Flair of spirits that entertain
With riddles of life,
The voices of creation
That continues breathing Truth
Even after death has conquered,
The natural mystic
The complex simplicity
The peace within
The love without
The gift of breath,
With all, How come
We only know God sometimes
– End –
