Monday 21 March 2016

International Poetry Day, what it means to us.


Shalom and happy international Poetry Day!
These days, it seems there is quite literally a day for everything and there really is. On our wedding anniversay last year, we also found out it was the international day to celebrate cats - boy is my furry baby happy that his day is now included in our wedding day. 

But since I am a poet, and I love poetry I enjoy celebrating these kind of days. I guess people are always looking for something to celebrate and why not. Poetry is very special to me. I started writing poetry from a young age and have enjoyed growing in what I truly believe, is a calling. I believe God - commissioned poets are born, much like God - commissioned musicians, painters, business people, it's a calling. Over the years I don't know how it happened but I nervously (and very quickly) read poetry at different events. Usually shaking and scared. But that changed as I grew in the words God gave me, and as I grew in understanding that poetry is not just a random thing, it's a Yahweh thing. It changed when I realised that, my words made a difference and my heart was transparent. It changed when people went silent and the words fell over them as the Holy Spirit moved. It changed when I saw women break open after years of abuse, by proclaiming a powerful poem over them. It changed when I realised poetry is not something I do, it's part of who Yeshua created me to be. Today, I have poems I have written hanging up in my home, these poems have been part of art exhibitions, birthday celebrations and more. I stand in awe of what God has done but I look also to the future with what more He has in store. 

Last weekend I took part in a very fun poets response poetry challenge, to write a poem about something that was in the news this previous week. Over 100 poems participated, very cool! So in honour of poetry day, I want to share mine below. It was a response to the conviction of South Africa by the International crime court, about the failure of this government to arrest Al - Bashir, the Sudanese dictator. He has killed millions of people in his country, many are children and many continue to die in this genocide. It has been a chocking portrayal of the coldness of society. Here it is, copyrighted (as all my poems are) may it touch you and feel free to share your poems too!

The Red Soil of Sudan, stained by South African Dust

My Darfuri brothers and sisters, we hear your cries and the loss of your thousands.
We smell the Sudanese soil sweating with blood, we feel the chill of the hopeless, displaced masses left behind. The swollen faces of the lifeless lie beneath the shadow of the sun. Somewhere a greedy president laughs as he discards the tickle of the blood of the slain.

Why me? She questions, while surrounded by the bodies of her bloodied family, "why I am alive just to die another day?" My brothers and sisters your lives are not far from our hearts, our emotions ripped open and apart, we cry for you, we weep for you, my brothers and sisters we hear you. 

My cello heart strikes at the strings of mourning, my beloved family, South Africa has failed you, but we on the streets, it is us who have not forgotten you.  The leaders that once swore to protect a nation are filled with violence and corruption but us, the men and women called South Africans, our hearts are bitter over this evil corruption, this evil disgrace. Our government has failed to do all that is right, your president flew out of here in broad daylight. They let him go, a man whose hands are filled with half a million lives, a man whose conscience never picks at his chest, never convicts him, his evil mind is always at rest. I howl at the reality you now face, sending back this man of violence only to instil more hate.

We weep for the lives of our Darfuri family whose voices went unheard and whose cries for salvation and redemption went unheeded. We swore as human beings after Hitler’s dream for the Nazi’s, that we would never allow hatred to teem or genocide to be enacted by another regime. But my words fall silent, at the failure of thousands, when will it end, our God only knows when. All I can ask in this dark night, is the forgiveness for this failure to do what is right. Collect your tears as memoirs so that we may know your stories, I send you love across the sea and hope will all my heart that soon life will come to my precious family locked in a paradise called Sudan, locked in a world enclosed in hatred and sin. Shallow graves may be your lot, but hold on please because I promise that not one of your tears will be forgot, this I promise you precious Darfuri, the treasured, forgotten Sudanese. 

Bless you family and may poetry continue to inspire you!

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for your moving words of poetry that reflect grief, betrayal, hope and love. Next to you at holley's this morning.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Sue, nice to meet you! Thanks for visiting and may you have an amazing week!

      Delete