Quietly after summer upon my body
Is she changing her colours again
Will we understand love before we make it
Will we honour the answers at this depth
Do we know what poverty is
Are we awake.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2016.
Tag: English
Joy
I hear the church bells ringing
And the birds take flight into the cold spring skies
And of all the things that I wish to do
I want to know what it is like to soar with you
Through the mundane things of this world
Because masturbation is not love
Pornography is not love
Equality is not love
Love is free from our imagination
As free as the rain that falls from the heavens
Mountains valleys oceans alleys
She can not be rented nor invented nor paused
So forget about yesterday and tell me about now
What brings you pure joy
Love.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2016.
Call my ugly
Call each and every ugly part of me
Until there is none left for me to cling to
Until they are no longer mine to carry
Free to be of what I am made.
I dedicate this poem to those who have called my ugly; and in so doing have awakened me to my humility; my true calling. From the time that we are born our lives are abundant with gifts. They will misname them. Our work is to rise above that.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2016.
How to remove the dread from the locks.
I used to dread the dreadlock until I let my locks, my hair grow out on its own. So that I can let you know that I too am love. Be gentle with yourself. There is courage and freedom and inner peace to be gained from this.
Dreadlocking
Forests of dark coily hair jerseyed
Into the fabric of my immigrant life
Understanding what is my ground
Something that’s not yours to name.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2014.
“Be careful of your thoughts, for your thoughts become your words. Be careful of your words, for your words become your actions. Be careful of your actions, for your actions become your habits. Be careful of your habits, for your habits become your character. Be careful of your character, for your character becomes your destiny.” Ancient Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu.
A Human Encounter
As though I am built of some other material
That neither you nor I can make out
Whether you are shapeshifting or maybe I
Beautiful warm burgundy animal blood
Humping thumping breathing organs
Fingerprint all my genes awake
Ancient codes in each and every cell
Popping flesh bubbles and children unborn
It’s my turn it’s my turn it’s my turn it’s mine
Survival in the love and war of the breeders
Horniness half hysterical on a cliff edge
Commanding a thousand valleys a thousand streams
Hot savage bliss in the climax to live on
Significant insignificance as we bow our heads
To surrender to such violence in rebirth.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2014.
Originally posted 15 March 2014
The Bathroom mirror
Sometimes the day molds me
Into features I do not recognise
A new day when at first glance
The morning has not touched me
And neither have I had a chance
To sculpt it with anxious hands
When loving you is so effortless
Not one of my secrets is original
I set loose a hundred possessions
And stand innocent in Nothing land
Nothing land she has everything
She knows well of eternal youth.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2014.
Originally posted 22 March 2014
Why not self publish
I am inspired and eternally grateful for each and every one of your posts that plant seeds of endless possibilities for my life: your precious reminders to keep receiving, creating and giving. I am considering to translate a selection of my poems into Norwegian for them to be published in a book at a publishing house here where I live; connect with the people who I live with. I am also aware of the fact that my readership is mainly english speaking and Norwegians do speak and read english.
Perhaps to focus on self publishing an english poetry book is the way to go. What am I waiting for?
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2016.
The Daily News
The bullshit of the week begins effortlessly
The printed word declares fear on the world
And at some point we feel the accountability
Close our eyes so we can play hunger games
While the obese stuff their muffle in protest
Dear God give me the strength to know you
Above agendas tripping all over themselves
Beyond all the seductions of his entitlements
Into the season of Your mercy and Your song
Because love is all that I seem to recognise
The rest is not for me.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2016.
Cold as ice
Snowflakes fall effortlessly down
Mother nature’s quiet ice upon my back
Making believe the bitter cold is something else
She has taught me that most days things are best left unspoken.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2016.
His religion
Elbows that show the tenderness of her heart
She holds onto something that he can not buy
Truly devastating that it still will not be him
For he must use his own door to heaven.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2016.
Paying for cities to burn
Carrying busy grocery bags
In the middle of the dark city
Muttering I’m sure I will eat this
While cities are burning
To buy the sun.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2016.
To love a strong woman
Abruptly he turned away in panic
As though she had come to dethrone him
Swore never to look into her eyes again
He could not bear losing her love
But it was already too late
Love had begun.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2016.
A Poem’s worth
Each poem is a tiny surrender
A peace offering to you human
Something to slow me down
Long enough to remember you
Long enough to remember me
Home where we know that song.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2014.
Originally posted 28 November 2014.
Stay
And Frida’s red ribbons
For each man who is looking for art
When respect was never found in looks
For each woman who is looking for security
And love was never found inside books
Romance for what it is worth has left us divorced
Where everything better is waiting in another place
When we have yet to learn to stay
Where pure joy is.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2015.
Patient is love
She found the river
And left no footprints behind
He will have to find his own way
To the river.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2015.
Winter turns
A crisp breeze of new love on its way enters the kitchen windows
Rustling handwritten notes along the wooden breakfast table
Winter turns to quietly summon all her workers once more
Without any reason.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2015.
City trees know
Buildings stand as concrete as the cold truth
Revealing a day as empty as a new rubbish bin
Yet the trees seem to know what to do with this
This longing longing longing for the eternal light
Leaves now quivering in the chilled silver winds
Yes the city trees do what they are meant to do
Nothing more despite the facades of progress
They are not anxious about it, no not at all.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2015.
Over the Seas
The oceans swell
As tears become saltier with loss
And bodies crash behind wintry doors
Groping for any familiar textures of humanity
That these foreign lands begin to recall
For mothers and fathers who abandon understanding
Just to smell the soil of a better life.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2015.
Inside Autumn
Multicoloured leaves along the street in a hill
Wood soaked and sweetened by the rain falling
Merciful water dripping onto quiet pavements
Dribbling slippery down the tarred thirsty road
A neutral sky where the air harbours no pressure
The rooftops and local windows leaking domestic
An uninspired dog lays heavy by an entrance hall
When there is nothing to do is there nothing to do
Flattened tired carpets still pretend to be luxury
Inside wooden walls of the same old thing again
Sometimes the coffee steaming will hold comfort
One of those days without a name to label it by
Forgotten picture frames capture some yesterdays
Glossy managed smiles and gestures from parties
The trolls and magnets and broken love messages
Settled into grown up life and ways of escaping it
The stale kitchen mood meets a crisp autumn air
Spring long dead visits the city to play some tricks
Sunlight so mild giving agonizingly little warmth
To feed the endless day ahead and years of ordinary.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2014.
Originally posted 10 October 2014
Falling for compassion
The price I paid
For any kind of love
To finally awaken
To the surface of my body
And where my mind had taken me
There is no greater peace of mind
Than falling for compassion.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2015.
Love until the end of time
When beauty no longer misleads us
When our bodies no longer separate us
When our achievements are forgotten
When all our mistakes have softened
When talking is no longer a commodity
When love abandons physical currency
When you have been there all along.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2014.
Originally posted 8 December 2014.
Love has work to do
Something about survival
That holds love hostage
When love can not be kept locked up
She pleads for her own release tonight
To see the light of day.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2015.
The Fabric of love
All the same
Sexual reflectors inform us
That we desperately seek love
So I sewed the hole in my pocket first
For what remains sacred
What keeps me warm
In my heart.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2015.
That straightened Volvo life
That straightened Volvo life
With a boy and a girl and a dog
That I kept trying to make
Rejects me over and over again
Telling me to stop it
Stop lying to yourself
I apply for the umpteenth time
Embrace the struggle
To love.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2015.
Blue is the quietest colour
I can hardly breathe for the love
When light makes our skin so real
Scars and marks I won’t recognise
I have no want to join such details
Many tones of blue before dawn
The colouring of regret and hope
Blue ink drenched all the surfaces
To soften the stretch marks of life
Curling up into this our ordinary
I can now smell the quiet of you
Hearing that love can’t get closer
For love is sleeping outside of me
Your skin now glowing blue milk
I do forgive you, I do forgive you
I reach out to celebrate your body
Make you witness your choices.
Copyright © Nomzi Kumalo, 2014.
Originally posted 22 May 2014.
Summer break. Wishing you peace.
NOMZI KUMALO 