blowing

The voices on the wind speak to me

Sharing their mirthless whispers

Screaming their timeless secrets

The South-Easter filling their lungs

Daring us all to listen.

A tale of enslavement

Minds and bodies bound

An ancient story of tomorrow

Spilling from fetid lips

Sputtering and blistering

Swallowing the decayed truth.

I am a child slavery

Still remembering, feeling, reeling

From seeing the rusted chains intact

Amid the squalor and scorn

Of criminalized poverty

That is my brothers’ legacy

And the sons and daughters’ lot.

The roving I - Hippy yuppies or yuppie hippies?

The up-sized 'Landy' – or Land Rover for those Jap-Crap loving ignoramuses – pulls into town: then another and another, all shades and attitude and accent.

I watch them watch me and I smile and they smile. Later we hang and chat and flirt I think. I always think and I hear about what is going down in their world. It’s a different reality with overlaps and a lack of overlaps and stuff!

Trappings and brands and opinions about everything and an apathy of a different kind. Apathy caused by belonging: safe and successful – successfully safe.

Taking time out – or time off – hitting the road and getting into a different groove; with a swagger that is bred from knowing that you are reaping the rewards of your labour: a life of labour; a laboured life.

This is a planned road trip along different routes to the same inane destination. This is the one: the pilgrimage!

Some visit an ailing and aging parent; others go to town in their Sunday best; or they go to school or to church or the clubhouse or the pub; some want to smash and plunder; and some want to own your life. But most just want to get to Mecca; their Mecca where they belong. And once you have arrived, when you have found it, you more easily, you are more readily able to withdraw: so opinionated, yet largely vacuous. Redundant! Like an exclamation mark at the end of a one-word sentence.

Good people, mostly harmless I’m almost sure. Doing this doing that; saying this saying that; planning this while planning that: ambivalent, obscure. Seemingly unsure that there’s life beyond subscription: that what they say is genuinely what they will ultimately do one day. Because after all we each have to do what we have to do dude! That’s cool… But why don’t we all do what we need to do so that we can all be cool dude? Because in the doing begins the reconnection with or own humanity. We become the human – singular – in humanity. Cognoscente, committed, caring and conscious.

Look into the depths of suffering and inequality and privilege and see yourself in its midst. Let the light spill forth. Baby steps. Just let the light be switched on; let it get turned on why don’t you?

And as the day draws to a end and the fire burns low, conversation turns to thoughts of a warm bed and the last beer is freezing your already cold hand and there’s no more tea in your mug or words that have not already be said.

The expensive guitar gets snuggled away in its un-scuffed case, contact lenses stored and teeth brushed: hot water bottle and pajamas, thermal – Kway for rugged outdoor slumbers. That’s cool. I wish I could do that. Dude! I dig this isolation of belonging?

A CON GAME

They call it the mating game,
But I think it’s more like a con game.

In the first place,
You have to make eye con-tact
Which if you are lucky
Leads to a smile and
Maybe even a con-versation.

The point of the con-versation of course
Is to con-vince the other person that
With or without con-traception,
The two of you really should
Con-summate your bond.

But unfortunately
The intimate act of con-summation
Leaves one of you feeling
As if they are in con-trol
And the other feeling con-fused.

And what’s more, if you are lucky,
You won’t con-tract any STI’s
Because nowadays,
There are those kinds of con-sequences
When it comes to sexual con-quests.

These Words

These words are intended
To illuminate and instigate
Despite or perhaps in spite of
Your thoughts and deeds:
Without murderous malice
Or even a false hope
Of reprieve
Because you claim
With so much passion
To understand.

Underlined, undefined
Depth with no consequence
Or recourse or cause
Undermined, ill defined.

These words are meant
To pierce the darkness
And penetrate the furthest recesses
That are prone to resist
Yet persist
To regurgitate nothing
But old views
That only ever expose
The infantile expression
Of your aggression,
Defeated in repose.

Underlined, undefined
A life without relevance.

Past indiscretions encompass
Who the I is in your mind
So we fail again
Always the same
Empty gestures in vain.

Underlined, undefined
Consciousness without presence.

Searching to find
A lasting distraction
Unrelated to substance
Or distance and your mind:
And inconsequence becomes
One sublime measure
Of creative impurity that reveals
Neither a glimpse nor insight.

Underlined, ill-defined
Living without meaning
And intent or consequence
Undermined, in your mind.

LOVE LETTER FOR THE EPOCH

Voices echo through time

Grand deeds of valour forgotten

In the mists of memory:

Words placed side by side –

Alongside the bodies of the slain,

And fallen – ancients expired.

The history books have failed –

To illuminate the path to the past:

Failed to restore dignity

And human value

To the decimated and desecrated!

We look to the future for answers

To questions asked yesterday:

Questions answered yesterday.

Written in secret, in the dark

Expressing that which troubles my soul

This love letter that will never be sent

A love letter for the Epoch!

Progres' on Africa Day!

The 25th of May was Africa Day - first inaugurated in 1963 when the OAU was first formed. This year Khoi Gxam Productions in collaboration with the District Six Museum, the ITMSA and Chimurenga Magazine hosted an frica Day programme at the Museum which included a short lunch time, birthday tribute to James Matthews performed by Tauriq Jenkins, Keenan Herman, Lee Roodt and Phillip Cowie with musical accompaniment by Glen Arendse; as well as a performance of the play Progres' which is based on the life and work of Ken Saro-Wiwa and explores some of the issues that continue to affect the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria.
The story is set in a fictional village which for all its specificity, could have been anywhere in Africa where issues of displacement, ethnicity, self interest and corruption are for the most part the order of the day as the lines between governance, politics and commerce continue to be blurred.

Audience reactions were positive and the event was an overall success although it is particularly telling that there were less than 100 people in attendance - and that for an event that was free! Maybe next time we should have loud music and alcohol instead?

Africa Day

The 25^th of May is Africa Day! Celebrated since 1963 when the Organization of African Unity was founded, the District 6 Museum this year in collaboration with the Prestwich Place Project Committee, Khoi Gxam Productions, the Ogoni Solidarity Forum, the Independent Theater Movement of South Africa and Chimurenga magazine, is hosting a series of discussions and performances that explore the themes of space, power, influence and profit.

The programme begins at eleven with a gathering of the Seven Steps club, an association of ex-residents who meet monthly to reflect on current issues. This will be followed by a tribute to dissident poet James Matthews, which will take the form of a lunchtime poetry reading with musical accompaniment based on a concept entitled Live Rage which was performed at Artscape last year as part of their heritage month celebrations. This performance is comprised of a selection of Mister Matthews poetry which will be interpreted by three young actors under the direction of Tauriq Jenkins and Michael Wentworth and will start at 12h30. A guest appearance by James Matthews will conclude the lunch hour performance.

At 16h30 a panel discussion panelists from some of the partner organizations presenting their different perspectives and the day will conclude with a performance of Progres, a play inspired by the life and work of acclaimed Nigerian author and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa who was executed along with eight others in 1995 for their opposition to the activities of Shell and the Nigerian Federal Government. Progres’ is written and directed by Michael Wentworth and Tauriq Jenkins and stars Tauriq as the lorry Progres’ with Monique Rockman, Lee Alan Roodt, Ema-Lee Atkins and Keenan Herman.

This play was first commissioned by the Ogoni Solidarity Forum – an organization established to raise awareness about the conditions in the Niger Delta where the story is set.

Chimurenga Magazine will be introducing the Chimurenga Chronicle – a speculative, future-forward newspaper that travels back in time to re-imagine the present. The next issue of Chimurenga will take the form of a once-off, one-day-only edition of a weekly newspaper the likes of which has never been seen in Africa. Back-dated to the week May 11-18 2008, it reports on the first week of the so-called xenophobic violence in South Africa, two years ago – and events around the world during this period.
This is not only a commemoration. It is also a second chance; an opportunity to provide the depth of reporting and analysis that should have appeared during this period. Our aim is not only to reanimate history – to ask what could have been done – but also to provide a space from which to re-engage the present and re-dream the future.

'Progres' - An original tribute to Ken Saro-Wiwa

Some of the cast & staff of OSF

My latest play 'Progres' based on the life and work of Ken Saro-Wiwa premiered on the 10th of November at Community House in Salt River. Developed with the Independent Theatre Movement of South Africa and the Ogoni Solidarity Forum, the play was co-directed by Tauriq Jenkins who also wrote some of the speaches for the character Komo that he portrayed. Audience reaction was phenomenal on the night and an extended run is being planned before the end of the year as well as a national universities tour for the new year.

The director with James Matthews and members of the cast after the successful gala performance of Live rAGE!

Live rAGE! is a performance tribute to the legendary poet James Matthews who celebrated his eightieth birthday on the 24th of May 2009. The performance took place on the 2nd of September at the Artscape Arena with a free community preview at noon and a gala performance that evening. The cast was comprised of individuals and collectives including poets, actors, musicians, dancers and a visual artist. Both shows performed to packed houses and without exception responses were positive.

Ken Saro Wiwa Memorial Project

'Progres' is a new play being developed for the Ogoni Solidarity Forum to commemorate the 14th year since the murder of writer and activist Ken Saro Wiwa by the Nigerian Federal Government and Royal Dutch Shell. The play will be based on characters developed by the writer in his compilation of short stories entitled 'Forest of Flowers' with some poems and music. The performance will take place on the 10 November at Community House in Salt River and will star Tauriq Jenkins with Monique Rockman, Keenan Herman, Lee Alan Roodt and Ema-Lee Atkins.

The Long Overdue Collection of Poetry

A RHAPSODY IN GREEN

Crazy young men who lived too fast
Flew too high the trip couldn’t last
Small time heroes from back in sixty-nine
Tried it all - had a wonderful time.

Lonely boys who are misunderstood
Hoping that the bad can be made good
In love with sad memories of content
Writing letters that are never sent.

The people they need are far away
Exposed and unfeeling they sit and play
One day soon their time will come
A time of revelation in the sun.

Lost in their minds they repent,
Alone in their minds they dement.

(1994 – Pretoria Central Prison)

Copyright - Michael Wentworth 1994

A Rhapsody of Green is the title poem of a collection of poetry written over the past fourteen years.
A suitable publisher is being saught for the printing of this compilation.