Time of the Legend with Zimbabwean Poet Patience Chiyangwa.
Patience Chiyangwa, I got stewed in your sizzling pot hot with nerve -jamming imagery and psyche-wrecking metaphor . Real poetry smacks your dozing mind and then you are hastily re-awakened to see images that seemed invisible of late . You are miraculously transfigured into Paul like the biblical Saul on the way to Damascus. It is when each verse beat drums inside your heart- caves . The reality of real poetry sits steadily onto readers belly , the pangs and the pain are ingredients of the consciousness abound . Real poetry bulldozes through uncollected rubbish dumps on the bottoms of cities and exposes the wretchedness within . It dives its way through cholera infested drinking water holes and beat with the frail hearts of dying communities . It smacks heavily on the corruption hardened faces of unrepentant charlatans and double- chinned zealots. Patience Chiyangwa brings a new dose of literary consciousness. Her poetry taste both maturity and prowess. Chiyangwa is an advocate of the hungry , the poor , the raped , the orphaned and the rejected. She is one of the prolific pioneers of Zimbabwean spoken word and page poetry. We are proud to publish creativity , diversity and dexterity in the person of Legendary Patience Chiyangwa-( Blurb by Mbizo CHIRASHA)
Wretched hearts
Now that the sun has dived deep into its enthralling horizon
Symphonic birdsong denotes that wrecked city of affection
It could have been on a beckoning blustery pouring night
Our feet staggered to the tune of the disgruntled rancorous wind
Yet we cuddled away in that wintery freezing livid breeze
Our breathe captured unapologetically in the break of spring
Perhaps we were slaves of the embrace of the soothing African sun
The instance of our parting lives with us forever
It was that barking dog that was music to our souls
Or was it the laughing hyena that was heralding the inevitable
It could have been the day the princess lost her virginity
But how I am convinced the curse was from the venom spitting anaconda
I was immersed in the cat’s melodious mews on the porch
It should have resonated with the invasive piercing baby screams
Perhaps the blinkers were our very own narcissism
That garden of roses and daisies blooms so enchanting
With the infesting weeds we took for granted
Much as the shedding off leaves in the winter’s cold
These seasons should never be snubbed
Only finding ourselves drifting in our ignorance
I was surfing in the corridors of romantic fantasy
Perhaps I was drowned in the imaginary mastery of his prowess
In the solitude of the silence of the loud proclamations
Oblivion to the imminent setting sun of passions
It could have been the songs of the tune of our broken guitar
Fading in the never impending the break of dawn
Motioning our staggering steps to grasping our foothold at dusk
Now that the sun has dived deep into the enthralling horizon
How our guilty feet have lost the rhythm
Perhaps these feet surrender to never dance that way again.
Careless serenade
So my sassiness is making you puke?
We are tangerines and not oranges to your taste buds
Waal, you got us whipping lemonade with your lemons
Oh you wannabe destiny of our unparalleled pursuit of purpose
So we kind of hate to see you like this
With your fellow fat cats and mediocrity loyalists
Who are the ones you so ought to count on
Oh how you will never get us dancing to your phony tunes
I have never seen a beggar feast on their own vomit
You are pigging on our very filthy, leper poverty
We are a battalion of unicorns, pagans, clowns and whores
Oh how our revolution is a systemic symphony of your demise
I see it in the intensity of my fiery and feisty menstrual blood
Feel it in the gnawing jaws of venomous menstruation sting
We are a defiant uprising claiming the sanity of the human race
Oh how the election will not be stolen and the ballot box will secure its birthright
So this will be some talk of the past too Zimbabwe
What happens in the dark will always come to light
We are fertility, they buried us and too naïve to grasp we were seeds
Oh how no one ever take away the creator given right to conceive.
Zimbo Lullaby
Oh hush my child, Tula, Tula, Wena!!
Could this be the very sign?
Of the sting of my boiling sweat?
This scourging heat raging really deep,
Into the bowels of my maternal instincts
Intimidation to my fundamental survival.
In this desolating volatile economy
mandatory confinement to my homestead,
is breeding clouds of looming starvation.
Am pondering on our smothering incomes,
when we are confined and shrinking
in the reality of this pandemic
Beyond the countryside and far afield
He is fighting for the survival of the clan
He did not make it home this Christmas
Scavenging much to his own starvation
The cars are said to be thirsty too in the city,
I am told it has angered the cost of our food
This scourging heat rages deep,
into the bowels of my maternal instincts,
poisoning the guts of my cultivated land
beyond my attempt to fend for this clan
He gave me a bag full of bank notes
which I have just been told cannot even buy a seed
Oh hush my child! Sleep. Sleep
While I ponder the way out this shithole
Wrestling this heat fatigue, as I watch and hassle
about my challenged once productive plough.
He is hustling and chasing the wind in the city,
against the odds of the new pandemic normal
A statistical reminder of a world that does not care,
That feeds on its poor and susceptible
Your road has been a rough and winding road to the city
Much as my grind in the dry and barren fields
This is the story of our long walk to freedom.
Patience Chiyangwa(PhD) ,A passionate mother of two girls and a women’s and child rights charity worker activist holding a Doctor of Humanities Honoris Causa, Commonwealth University, Master & BA in Communications, Atlantic International University USA, Diplomas in Journalism, INTEC College, South Africa and in Public Relations, Zimbabwe Institute of Public Relations and undergraduate Bachelor of Law , University of South Africa. I obtained a Master Class, Certificate in Business Management & Leadership from the London Graduate School and Right to Development, Disability Rights in the African Context & African Human Rights System in Comparative Perspective Courses from the Advanced Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa, and Faculty of Law. I am the Executive Director of Foundation Zimbabwe, founder of Keepers Alert and TheWorld’BigSleepOutHarare. I worked for Childline Zimbabwe for over a decade in Public Relations, Advocacy and Resource Mobilization. I was the Founder/Editor of its first in-house magazine, The Connexion. I published Childline Zimbabwe advertorial articles in the Herald and the Independent newspapers and articles in the POTRAZ POST and the government ICT ministry magazines amongst others. I held guest lecturer sessions at the College of Southern Africa Journalism & Mass Communication classes on Child Friendly Reporting. I am the recipient of the 2012 Ulrich Wickert International Journalist Child Rights International Award Winner hosted by Plan Germany in Berlin Germany. I attended the inaugural commemorations of the International Day of the Girl Child on 11th October 2012 at the Potsdam Plaza, Berlin Germany. I am an accredited Journalist with the Media Commission of Zimbabwe, Member of the Zimbabwe. I attended the 1st African Girl’s Summit on Ending Child Marriage in Africa 26 – 27Nov 2015 Lusaka, Zambia. I am the EatOut Movement Force4Good Awards 29th March 2019 Winner, Outstanding in the category of Women & Children in efforts in fighting against homelessness. I am an Amazon Author published in August 2019, A Diary of Patience. I am one of the initial members of the Zimbabwe Women Writers published in the 1992 Bury Thy Humble Poetry Collection by Rosemary Smith-Kebe, in the (ZWW) 1993 English Anthology edited by Norma Kitson, in the Prose & Poetry by Zimbabwe Women Writers July 1998 Anthology, in the 2015 Traps English Poetry Collection edited by Ethel Kabwato and Zimbabwe Women Writers, Harare Branch 1998 Vice-Chairperson. I was published in the Young Women First 2nd Edition short story contributor (SAFAIDS Regional publication). I was a participant in the documentary of ‘Sex in the City in Harare” by the International Video Fair 2009. I was a Board Member of Child Resource Institute Zimbabwe, of the International Child Resource Institute, USA and was a member of the School Development Committee, Borrowdale School 2015
Mbizo CHIRASHA( Time of the Poet Republic Curator) Author ofa Letter to the President. co-Authored Whispering Woes of Ganges and Zambezi. Co-Edited Street Voices Poetry Collection (Germany Africa Poetry Anthology). Co- Editor of the Corpses of Unity Anthology. Associate Editor at Diasporia(n) online. Chief Editor at Time of the Poet Republic. Founding Editor at WomaWords Literary Press. Publisher at Brave Voices Poetry journal. Curator at Africa Writers Caravan. UNESCO-RILA Affiliate Artist at University of Glasgow. 2020 Poet in Residence Fictional Café. 2019 African Fellow, IHRAF.ORG. Project Curator and Co-Editor of the Second Name of Earth is Peace (Poetry Voices Against WAR Anthology). Contributing Essayist to Monk Arts and Soul Magazine. Poetry and writtings appear in FemAsia Magazine ,Wrath -Bearing Tree, Inksweat andtears journal , One Ghana One Magazine, Ofi Press, World Poetry Almanac, Demer Press , Atunis Galaxy poetry online , IHRAF Publishes , The Poet a Day , Bezine.Com , Sentinel UK, Oxford School of Poetry Pamphlet , Africa Crayons, PulpitMagazine,Poetry Pacific, Zimbolicious , Best New Poets ,Poetry Bulawayo , Gramnet webjournal, Diogen Plus , Poeisis.si , Festival de Poesia Medellin and elsewhere .
TIME OF THE POET-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.
An Internet-based Word Arts Culture and Writers Center- Archiving theme-based Digital Poetry Collections , Profiling Iconic Poets, Exhibiting Legendary Writers and Hallowed Artists .The Center hosts and publishes Word City Monthly(an Internationally acclaimed , a multi-genre monthly, publishing flash fiction, poetry, short fiction, folktales, book reviews, interviews, literary arts news and global opportunities. Word City Monthly is headed and edited by the highly versatile and profoundly spirited storytelling revolutionary, Commonwealth Prize nominated Canadian Author Darcie Friesen Hossack This Center is founded on the values of promoting word culture , diversity of writing ideas, dialogue, literary arts exchange and cultural and racial tolerance among other matters. TIME OF POET REPUBLIC was founded by UNESCO-RILA Affiliate ARTIST. Freedom of Speech Fellow PEN-Zentrum Deutschland, 2019 African Fellow (ihraf.org/international-fellows). September 2020 University of Glasgow Creative Writing Programme Guest Poet/Discussant. Author of LETTER to the President(2019) and acclaimed Literary Arts Activism Projects Diplomatie, Mbizo CHIRASHA.
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