|
|
Mzi kayise Mahola
|
|
-
- 1: How and when did it dawn upon you
that you have a poet in you? Could you
remember your first ever poem?
-
- From the year that my elder sister
bought me a novel as my birthday present,
I developed keen interest for literature.
What I found very challenging and fascinating
at school was essay writing. I was formally
introduced to poetry in Grade 8 and I
instantly fell in love with narrative
poetry. It was in our final year (1969)
as a Matriculant or Grade 10 learner that
I wrote my first poem. The title of that
poem was Moths round a Lamp. Until that
day I used to think that only dead people
wrote poetry, because books that we read
were written by dead people. I had never
met a living writer in my life. I had
no idea that I could write a poem until
a classmate came over to my desk to show
me a poem that he had written. I was surprised,
because I did not know that a living person
could write a poem. I read the poem and
felt that I could write a better one,
and so I wrote the first poem out of jealousy.
A lot of poems were to follow after that
initial poem, though I was not prepared
to share them with anybody.
- 2. What makes you write poetry? Life
or beauty of life?
-
-
- At first I wrote poetry to release
the steam of political pressure and melancholy
exerted on us. I later used poetry as
a platform for self-expression. when political
training in our liberation movement broadened
my scope I identified myself with the
suffering and politically oppressed masses
of the world. Today I find inspiration
to write from the natural environment
where man is the chief player. I write
about man’s propensity for destruction
and his weakness to succumb to evil trappings.
I write about man’s capacity to love and
I write about mysteries of nature. Finally
I’ve discovered the therapeutic effect
of writing poetry so I write to purge
myself of stressing situations.
- 3. What is your perspective of beauty?
-
- To me beauty is what makes the spirit
jump with joy. It may be the beauty of
an expression, of land, of a woman or
of an object. Beauty is synonymous with
perfection and innocence and is incapable
of doing evil.
-
- 4. Does any incident provoke you to
poetry?
- A lot of things provoke me to write.
Anxiety or pain finds release in poetry.
Social injustices, tragedies, poverty,
animals, immorality, anguish or any experience
that disturbs or exhilarates me can trigger
poetic lines.
-
- 5. How do you treat the things happening
around us? War, terror, colonization,
genocide, homicide and what not!
-
- They appall me, because many innocent
people and children become traumatized.
Such social disorders lead to poverty
and pain. In their disorderly manner they
cause irreparable mental ravages. Development
should be an orderly process. It should
not be preceded by disorder, tears, death
or spilling of blood.
- 6.What will happen to your poetry if
the concept of love would be lost once
and for all?
-
- The concept of love can never be lost,
because light will finally prevail, not
evil. Even if the concept of love could
be lost my poetry will remain a voice
of conscience in a society that has lost
its humanity. Those individuals who seek
and thirst for virtuousness in man will
find solace in my verses.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|