The scintillating, rat -tat rhythm and the drumbeat vibe of her well coined verses bombarded my lyric thrashed mental box. Poetry that roast and cracks popcorn in my bloodstream, real poetry. The lyrical dexterity is magical like the glow of rays at morning time and the grace of the silver moon above Table Mountains cleaning the dark of shadows off the human wonderland. Intensity of messages coupled with belly pit rumbling imagery mesmerizes the readers mental eye. The touch of Africaness as lines precede one after another blow by blow. Here is poetry band Symbolism plays drums , while imagery dances like breakdance, kwaito or pansula , rhythm here is a leading vocalist at the spoken word impromptu .Again after the frenzied dances , the beat ,the echo and the metaphoric trances .Symbolism is left on stage to perform his natural intercourse with the audience’s heart caves. The poem I’m BEAUTIFUL is trailblazing, the poem is human, this poem is earthly and beautiful. Can I say it is a poem turned human or human turned into a poem. FIONA KHAN diligently fuses spoken word poesy and page poetry to feed her audience with a poetic balanced diet . PROLIFIC.KHAN is the founder of several literary arts, literacy projects and child care projects. She is the Founder of The Fiona Khan Academy of Learning, a child-oriented project. KHAN is spearheading The Global Forum 4 Literacy, a UNESCO recognized organisation. LEGIT. We are sincerely gratified and humbled feature this great Writer, Literacy Projects Curator, Acclaimed Educator and accomplished Poet FIONA KHAN.
I AM BEAUTIFUL
I am Beautiful
From the calloused feet that trudges the tired Earth
To the ends of my hair
Split from grooming and frivolity
I am Beautiful
From the pointed tips of my breasts
To the sagging of them under the weight
Of suckling young and egregious gravity
I am Beautiful
From the gnarled nails
That toiled the soil
Caressed your torso
To the dryness of my skin
That maps the world of my journeys
I am Beautiful
From the overhanging layers of my waist
That bore the burgeoning of pregnancy
To the sacred lines of my belly
That stretched and blossomed under the weight of life
I am Beautiful
From the fine lines that etch my face
To the curtain behind my eyes
From the equator of my lips
To the tropic of my jawline
I am Beautiful
From the taught beauty of youth
To the wrinkled crevices of ageing
Each line and wrinkle a milestone
In the mountain and mole hills of Life
I am Beautiful
From the swaying gait of my curvaceous derriere
To the lilting swagger of my rounded hips
I am Beautiful?
I am Beautiful!
©Fiona Khan (Mehmooda)
THE LAND IS MINE
From the plateau of Table Mountain
to the valleys of the Great Dragon.
From the breath of the Karoo
to the length to Cairo
the Doctor sings the songs of an old tale.
The tale of the sailors
haunting the echoes
of cave dwellers and the San
lapping the coast with skeletons
and graveyards
murmuring in the zephyr
dreams of life, love and hope.
Generations sailed the sea of freedom
enslaved by the land by ownership
this land is mine
this land is yours.
The Land, just a mass
is neither mine nor yours.
It is for the temporary dwellers
and only a bridge.
THEY NEVER TOLD US
They never told us
the sea comes back
to claim the land!
They never told us
the weather Mother
will claim our families into her bosom,
with her fury of the storm before the calm
and the calm after the storm
leaving the stealth of silence.
They never told us
As we waited . . .
They would never come to clear the flotsam
And the stench from floating cadavers and carrion
silent in the scream
of perpetual havoc.
Eyes blank; drowned souls
Hands empty: parched throats.
Steel flutter bugs are sparse
between heaven’s fury
And the sea invasion
With only questions –
Nobody told us
Water that bathed us, quenched us
cleansed us, is within us . . .
Would come back to claim us!
They forgot to tell us –
THE GLOBAL FORUM 4 LITERACY STORY
We at Global Forum 4 Literacy are not just local, we are globally social, environmental and cultural, creating a worldwide network of language, literacy and, literature. Literacy and literacy challenges are global issues that effects and affects socio-economic dynamics in any country. We lead, motivate, celebrate and create. Global Forum 4 Literacy spearheaded by Fiona Khan, are literally the ‘Go To’ site for anything and everything bookish and wordish on social media. GF4L drives change by taking away the laborious hours of procrastination and distraction of sitting before the computer and searching. We are into the Fourth Industrial Revolution and up to date with technology and The Internet of Things.
We are leaders and global trendsetters in the Creative Commons Network. We create our own books, print, publish and distribute. Our greatest achievement is collaborative planning and sustainable achievements and goals.
We work within the UNESCO parameters of Sustainable Development Goal 4 and 11 in respect of education and sustainable cities and communities, job creation and the cascading effect of education as a major criterion in social progression, lifelong learning and upliftment.We also encourage the use of indigenous languages and the promotion of resources in indigenous languages.We are the only literacy project that represented South Africa at the UNESCO conference in Krakow Poland, by introducing the world to various literacies and the social impact on a circular economy.We introduced the concept of social literacies through mobile and digital platforms as mobiles are the largest in sales, especially in Africa.We have worked with the Ethekwini Municipalities for 29 years and we are the only literacy project in Kwa-Zulu Natal to effect and affect change.Our team and all supporters are passionate and motivated about social upliftment and change with a positive and sustainable vision and mission. We affect change through our values and ethics by working in a team of collaboration with our multiple partners e.g. the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal. UNESCO, Ethekwini Municipal Libraries, Department of Basic Education and the Department of Higher Education.Principals at schools are workshopped in a teaching revolution of 4IR to keep in touch with technology and with the techno-savvy learners.Our workshops for teachers, writers, youth and early childhood development practitioners are facilitated by Fiona Khan, award-winning and internationally published author, poet, social entrepreneur, community practitioner, environmentalist, motivational speaker, global leader, trendsetter and game changer. The Fiona Khan Academy of Learning and Healing works with learners with learning challenges. Every child is gifted. The Academy has been incorporated with the Global Forum 4 Literacy encouraging a unique program developed by Fiona Khan to create affective and effective change of complete success within 3 months, guaranteed. We do globally, free digital and mobile downloads in resolving the social issues of illiteracy, poor language and literacy performance and the lack of resources in global communities with the ain of effecting and affecting positive changes. It means 42 countries presently, download free literature resources for literacy, libraries and, classrooms. We assist countries with setting up similar projects in their countries. We also assist with mentoring and coaching, education and training of pre-service teachers and upgrading the skills of in-service teachers. We are known internationally by UNESCO as Durban is now the UNESCO City of Literature and we are a part of the creative Cities networks linking all the UNESCO designated cities. The initiation of the Traveling Books Project in 2000 was to reduce, reuse and recycle books such that every child has a book in their hand. Our digital downloads travel the world and at any time can be accessed through social media networks which are constantly uploaded.As part of the community engagement program at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, the Global Forum 4 Literacy has been conducting workshops through myself, Fiona Khan. We engage pre-service teachers in changing pedagogy and methodology. Changing classroom practice means using creativity, innovativeness, imagination and using Ubuntu with life-long learning with core practices. We also started the first mobile tutor., tutors that do home visits to tutor learners.Every moment in my life is a great achievement. It has been the most captivating journey through hardships and challenges, to achievements and successes. Being the founder of the Global Forum 4 Literacy has opened the world to me. I have been able to help people from Gaza to Sierra Leone, America, India, South East Asia and Australia. I am growing exponentially each day with every new experience. However, taking the Global Forum 4 Literacy to UNESCO and spearheading the UNESCO designation to Durban by hosting the initial meeting and being on the steering committee, is the crowning glory of 30 years in the field of language, literacy, and literature. It is the only city in Africa to hold the title in literature.I must be humble to admit, my challenges are learning experiences from an abused woman to the heights of a global ambassador in literature and literacy can only be described as meteoric. I am always aspiring, enspiring and inspiring.We are not just local, we are globally social, environmental and cultural, creating a worldwide network of language, literacy and, literature. Literacy and literacy challenges are global issues that effects and affects socio-economic dynamics in any country. We lead, motivate, celebrate and create. Global Forum 4 Literacy spearheaded by Fiona Khan, are literally the ‘Go To’ site for anything and everything bookish and wordish on social media. GF4L drives change by taking away the laborious hours of procrastination and distraction of sitting before the computer and searching. We are into the Fourth Industrial Revolution and up to date with technology and The Internet of Things.We are leaders and global trendsetters in the Creative Commons Network. We create our own books, print, publish and distribute. Our greatest achievement is collaborative planning and sustainable achievements and goals.
LEGENDARY POET FIONA KHAN
I am Fiona Khan. I am an internationally published and award-winning author and poet, environmentalist and community practitioner and a Global Goodwill Ambassador. I am the founder and Director of the Global Forum 4 Literacy and the Traveling Books Project. My name and The GF4L are synonymous as I have been spreading language, literature and literacy since 1994 with the Nelson Mandela campaign of a Reading Nation is a Winning Nation. I have done this via the Ethekwini Municipal Libraries, and the Dept of Basic Education in KZN.Every moment in my life is a great achievement. It has been the most captivating journey through hardships and challenges, to achievements and successes. Being the founder of the Global Forum 4 Literacy has opened the world to me. I have been able to help people from Gaza to Sierra Leone, America, India, South East Asia and Australia. I am growing exponentially each day with every new experience and as a trendsetting social entrepreneur.I am the Global Goodwill Ambassador for Literacy and Humanitarian work globally as conferred by the Global Goodwill Ambassadors Society and Richard de Pilla from the US.Recently I have been awarded the Iceland Residency for children’s literature. It is the pinnacle of my writing career in writing children’s books. I will hopefully be in Reykjavic in October 2020.
MEET TIME OF THE POET REPUBLIC eDitor
MBIZO CHIRASHA is a UNESCO -RILA Affiliate Artist(https://gramnet.wordpress.com/2020/06/01/new-unesco-rila-affiliate-artist-mbizo-chirasha/). FREEDOM SPEECH Fellow at PEN- Zentrum Deutschland. Poet in Residence at the Fictional Café (International publishing and literary digital space). 2019 Sotambe Festival Live Literature Hub and Poetry Café Curator. 2019 African Fellow for the International Human Rights Art Festival(https://ihraf.org/international-fellows ) , Essays Contributor to Monk Art and Soul Magazine in United Kingdom .Arts Features Writer at the International Cultural Weekly .Featured Writer Poet Activist at The Poet A Day(https://jamiededes.com/). Core Team Member and African Contributor to Bezine of Arts and Humanities(https://thebezine.com/) in USA. Flash/Short Fiction Writer for Squawk Back Publication(http://www.thesquawkback.com/2020/01/mbizo.html).Contributing Writer( Africa) to IHRAF Publishes-https://ihraf.org/ihraf-publishes.The Originator of the Zimbabwe We Want Poetry Campaign. Curator of MiomboPublishing Blog Journal(https://miombopublishing.wordpress.com/). Founder and Chief Editor of WOMAWORDS LITERARY PRESS. Founder and Curator of the Brave Voices Poetry Journal. Co-Editor of Street Voices Poetry triluangal collection( English , African Languages and Germany) initiated by Andreas Weiland in Germany. Poetry Contributor to AtunisPoetry.com in Belgium. African Contributor to DemerPress International Poetry Book Series in Netherlands. African Contributor to the World Poetry Almanac Poetry Series in Mongolia. His latest 2019 collection of experimental poetry A LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT was released by Mwanaka Media and Publishing and is both in print, on Amazon.com and at is featured at African Books Collective. 2003 Young Literary Arts Delegate to the Goteborg International Book Fair Sweden (SIDA AFRICAN PAVILION) .2009 Poet in Residence of the International Conference of African Culture and Development (ICACD) in Ghana. 2009 Fellow to the inaugural UNESCO- Africa Photo- Novel Publishers and Writers Training in Tanzania. 2015 Artist in Residence of the Shunguna Mutitima International Film and Arts Festival in Livingstone, Zambia. A globally certified literary arts influencer, Writer in Residence and Recipient of the EU-Horn of Africa Defend Defenders Protection Fund Grant, Recipient of the Pen Deutschland Exiled Writer Grant. He is an Arts for Peace and Human Rights Catalyst, the Literary Arts Projects Curator, Poet, Writer, publicist is published in more 400 spaces in print and online
TIME OF POET REPUBLIC- An Internet based Poetry Center, Archiving Theme based Digital Poetry Anthologies and Profiling Iconic Poets and Writers
