Dialogues: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Poems in honor of Poet Laureate Mazisi Kunene's 90th Birthday.

Sunday, May 31, 2020

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Poems in honor of Poet Laureate Mazisi Kunene's 90th Birthday.

Cheers to a Happy 90th Birthday to the genius Mazisi Raymond Kunene!

Dear friends, family, colleagues and all lovers of poetry,

As we experience another sad week in America, is with a profound gratitude and honor that I bring to you a poem by the award winning poet,

Will Alexander, written on the occasion of the 90th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION of the late genius, South African born, poet

MAZISI KUNENE (May 12, 1930 Durban, South Africa - August 11, 2006 Durban. South Africa). The literary icon, Kunene, who was best known for his epic poem, Emperor Shaka the Great, was designated Africa's poet laureate in 1993; and in 2005 he became South Africa's first poet laureate. He was professor of African Literature at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1975 until he returned, with his family, back to South African to teach at the University of Natal.

I have profound warm memories of Professor Kunene, during his UCLA days on campus; and, also at my art gallery. In particular, I remember him at the opening reception for the Jacob Lawrence: Toussaint L'Overture Prints exhibition, where Lawrence and his artist wife, Gwendolyn Knight were in attendance. It warms my heart to know two icons of visual art and literature had a chance to meet at my gallery. I cherish the honor.

Happy Birthday Mazisi Raymond Kunene!

Best,

Alitash

Was I wrong,
A poem by Mazisi Kunene

Was I wrong when I thought
All shall be avenged?
Was I wrong when I thought
The rope of iron holding the neck of young bulls
Shall be avenged?
Was I wrong
When I thought the orphans of sulphur
Shall rise from the ocean?
Was I depraved when I thought there need not be love,
There need not be forgiveness, there need not be progress,
There need not be goodness on the earth,
There need not be towns of skeletons,
Sending messages of elephants to the moon?
Was I wrong to laugh asphyxiated ecstasy
When the sea rose like quicklime
When the ashes on ashes were blown by the wind
When the infant sword was left alone on the hill top?
Was I wrong to erect monuments of blood?
Was I wrong to avenge the pillage of Caesar?
Was I wrong? Was I wrong?
Was I wrong to ignite the earth
And dance above the stars
Watching Europe burn with its civilisation of fire,
Watching America disintegrate with its gods of steel,
Watching the persecutors of mankind turn into dust
Was I wrong? Was I wrong?

________________________________________

Mazisi: Alive At The Cusp of Your 90th Realm

A poem by Will Alexander

Mazisi

you the great spirit

the intransigent oracle

who now appears & disappears

as progenitor of liberty

not as scribe super-imposed by professional sterility as syntax

but by magical etching via surreptitious penguin's quills

never a domain of hoarseness

but personal power via in-docile bravery

being colorful wind that continues to erupt from transfixed volcanoes & it is you

who magically inscribed Shaka

who sculpted his salt from indiginous fragments

from lingual incensment

alive as living structural historicity

not as quotidian perspicacity

but through language as sum

via the biographic as intrigue

Mazisi

you remain the great torch

blazing & retreating as touch & go astonishment

possessing in your psyche a plethora of lion's blood

condoned by dark behavioural spell

always signalling from the beyond your power as prophetic Zulu doctor who continues to forge alchemical numerics

rife with organic Zulu cosmology

Masizi

you are never as dazed ghost or ornamental replication

but as mirror who embraces forces & because you remain spawned by ceaseless bravery

you spontaneously erupt

not unlike a teeming realm explosive with swans

always breaching the invisible

via the spellbinding power

of your commanding hallucination

Will Alexander (born 1948) is a poet, essayist, playwright, novelist and visual artist. He graduated from UCLA in 1972, with a B.A. in English and creative writing. He is a recipient of many fellowships and awards, including California Arts Council Fellowship, American Book Award and most recently the Jackson Poetry Prize.