The aroma of her paradoxical verses is like the scent lingering the bread baking backyard kitchens. The lyrical sting smells of half cigars stubbed for yet another smoking joint to come. Devika Brendon masters the art of paradox , her poetry is the string of puffed smoke coiling off an intact cigarette stick to mingle with oxygen and dissolve into earthly wind but sometimes the smoke dies into squashed ash and is trembled upon by the same smoker after enjoying ,the aroma, the puff and the dance of smoke into the universe. Devika is a keen seer of life and the living, a brilliant chronicler, a thorough philosopher and a word economist, she tells medulla riveting stories through bold poetry lines. Paradox is the natural ingredient, while verbal economics concocted with reason and lyrical dexterity qualifies her poetry for a literary balanced diet. Paradox is the carbohydrate, metaphor is the protein, imagery is the Vitamin B12, Potassium is reason and verbal dexterity becomes Calcium. Readers are safe. Devika Brendon is an accomplished editor, literary arts project expert, renowned writer and a brilliant page poet. TIME OF THE REPUBLIC is rooted onto diversity of ideas, real poetry, revolutionary artistry and literary consciousness. I implore our readers to take time grazing real poetry on the piece, ELECTION FEVER. Aluta Continua- (Blurb by Mbizo CHIRASHA)
Touchstone
Each moment is all I can bear or inhabit:
confined in its contained space
I can float between all the extremes
that exhaust me so
Out of time’s strict specifications
One each instant, and the limits pressing in
A small distance away from you
A stone’s throw
It Is What It Is
It’s the same way you know right away when the milk turns sour:
Something that you thought was wholesome
curdles and transforms
Like a directional vector, changing in mid air;
A spear hurled like a military drone.
And it’s the way it is, and it is the end of it.
It’s like an Emperor unfitted for his own throne
What started sweet, and shy and hopeful
Like a child fresh anointed from its bath
Is now tainted: cannot even be freshly painted
The hope at the heart of it has gone.
Thunderdome
There is a silver fountain, tiled with mercury
And a roof with skylights letting in the heavens, above me
Opening up access to the Omniscience
That is the all-seeing eye that can
make sense of all this
What chaos and confusion this era has been!
The wires stretched to their tripping point
The slow slippage of the terra non firma
Back to the null, and to the void
It’s a good place to be, at the end of the year
So much – so intense at the time – now seems a blur
A scrabble of factoids, biopics and slide across or up
or down to access a montage of screen shots
Dissolving – as they should – as the surfaces alter
Draining out, renewing, and running clean at last
Exorcising the residues of the past
Election Fever
All the rubbish left in the streets
Election flyers, ads for past events
The surplus food that the kids can’t eat
Gets thrown everywhere but in the bins
Colombo at times reminds us of Hamelin
No wonder there are rats, and crows
Competing with the scavenging dogs
Fighting for their diseased survival
Amidst the uneven cracked pavements
And plunging gutters of the raddled City
The toothy smiles of the candidates for election,
gleam like a tinkling dream
The brands they are sponsored by,
Their little covens and cabals
All kept loyal by the promise of
Infinitely delayed satisfaction
The silent, ragged internal scream
We could identify with them,
Justifying our place on Mazlow’s Hierarchy
If not The Great Chain Of Being:
We could identify out of sympathy
Or to justify the habits we have formed
The fly-ridden places we frequent
Straight out of hell: The speakeasies, the stalls and joints
The sex with its lack of consent
Asked or given
The degradation of the show and tell
DEVIKA BRENDON
Devika Brendon is a writer, teacher, editor and reviewer. She is Consultant Editor of FemAsia Magazine, and Editor of New Ceylon Writing. Her poetry and short fiction have been published in anthologies and literary journals in Australia, India, Sri Lanka and Italy, including MargAsia and Quadrant Magazine. She is also a columnist, whose opinion pieces and social commentary appear in Ceylon Today and The Sunday Island. Devika was awarded The Henry Lawson Memorial Prize for Poetry in 1989.
MEET TIME OF THE POET REPUBLIC CURATOR
Mbizo CHIRASHA, UNESCO-RILA Affiliate Artist. Freedom of Speech Fellow to PEN- Zentrum Deutschland,Germany. Alumni of the International Human Rights Arts Festival in New-York, USA. Literary Arts Activism Diplomatie. Globally Certified Arts Mediums Curator and Influencer. Internationally Published Page and Spoken Word Poet. Writer in Residence. Arts for Human Rights Catalyst. Core Team Member of the Bezine Arts and Humanities Project. His illustrious poetry, hybrid writings, political commentary, short fiction, book reviews and Arts Features are published in more than 400 spaces notably the Monk Arts and Soul in Magazine in United Kingdom. Atunis Poetry.com in Belgium. Demer press poetry series in Netherlands. World Poetry Almanac in Mongolia. Poesia journal in Slovenia. Bezine Arts and Humanities Webzine in USA. The Poet a Day in Brooklyn, USA. Litnet Writers Journal in South Africa. African Crayons in Nigeria. Poetry Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. Pulp-pit USA. The FictionalCafe international Journal, Texas USA. Best New African Poetry series in Zimbabwe, Zimbolicious Poetry Collections in Zimbabwe. Co-edited Street Voices International Publications with Andreas Weiland in Germany. Co-Edited Silent Voices Anthology, a Tribute to Chinua Achebe. Co-Edited the Corpses of Unity, solidarity collection to victimized Cameroonians with Nsah Mala. Curated and Edited the Zimbabwe We Want Poetry, Inside Digraceland speaking poetic truth to the Mugabe regime and other bad regimes. He owns the Time of the Poet blog zine, MIOMBOPUBLISHING that published the #GlobalCallforPeaceProject titled the Second of EARTH is Peace. A LETTER to the PRESIDENT his experimental resistance poetry collection was released in August 2019 by Mwanaka and Media Publishing. Co- Authored Whispering Woes of Ganges and Zambezi with Sweta Vikram in India. Good Morning President his first poetry collection was published in 2011 by Zimbabwean published based in United Kingdom, Diaspora Publishers.COVID 19 Satansdeadly fart is forthcoming. Chirasha is Founder and the Chief Editor of Brave Voices Poetry Journal, https://bravevoicespress.home.blog/ and WOMAWORDS LITERARY PRESS,https://womawordsliterarypress.home.blog/
MORE INFORMATION visit, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbizo_Chirasha
TIME OF THE POET REPUBLIC- An Internet based Writers Center, Archiving Theme based Digital Poetry Anthologies and publishing Iconic Poets ,Writers and Artists from around the globe. TIME OF POET REPUBLIC was founded by UNESCO-RILA Affliate ARTIST. Freedom of SPEECH Fellow PEN-Zentrum Deutschland.2019 African FELLOW ihraf.org and Acclaimed Literary Arts Diplomatie,Mbizo CHIRASHA
