Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Poems from the warm heart
There is something so significant with poetry. Great poets say that poetry serve as an invitation to celebrate language, enhancing and enriching our appreciation for the power of words to capture the essence of things. Poetry is a wonderful conveyer of emotions, extending and intensifying everyday experiences. Get hold of Poems from the Warm Heart, an anthology of poetry authored by Mike Zulu, Chimwemwe Kamanga and Marisen Mwale then you will have embarked on an adventurous poetical journey.
Divided into six thematic areas, poems from the warm heart is there to touch your heart, titillate your senses, and heighten your awareness on a diverse range of issues taking place in the universe. By the moment you complete the adventurous journey in the book you will have come across a wide array of poetry spanning the following areas: social perception and justice, love and romance, suffering and lamentation, life experiences, culture, politics and nature.
The best barometer for measuring the poetical mastery in the anthology is through the writing skills incorporated. Poems in the anthology encompass admirable poetical skills ranging from rhythm to rhyme, alliteration to assonance, onomatopoeia to repetition, imagery to figurative language, and finally emotional force.
Marisen Mwale combines rhythm, rhyme and alliteration in the poem: Life, oh, futile life! The second stanza goes: then do we discern, the ill-conceived fruits of destiny/are but malignant mandibles of disguised strife/when the once esteemed beam of light/forever becomes a pall of eternal night/ and abruptly all dreams drift from dumbfounded mind/then do we comprehend how like chasing the wind/ the ill-conceived fruits of destiny are/ how vain full of bizarre palpitations of the heart.
Some poems in the anthology flow with the semblance of the metaphysical poems of 17th and 18th century grand poets such as John Keats, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Andrew Marvel. Reciting Love Dream by Mike Zulu and To my love a dedication by Marisen Mwale, one recalls Andrew Marvel’s famous poem: To his coy mistress. Of course the flow and the choice of the words differ but the angle addressed seems similar. Others have the nostalgic touch like those of leopard Senghor. There is also a revolution angle in some pieces, probably weaved in the poetical touch of Africa’s great like David Rubadiri, Niyi Osundare, Cyril Cheney-Cooker and Dennis Brutus.
As the poems flow with an admirable range of poetical elements, one also notes that the poems have been written in different types of poetry. In the anthology are narrative poems, lyrical poems, limericks, free verse and choral poetry. While Poems from the warm heart express feelings, so too does it also weave into the labyrinths of soul searching. Some poems question: why is sin a sin? Why do we always ask what is wrong with others than what is right with them? The soul search goes deeper into the illusions of democracy. Change, yes, things have changed. But the other changes are detrimental. Cited in one of the poems include: the kwacha growing inflationary wings, girls auctioning their bodies through prostitution, trees looting for charcoal, orphan care becoming a booming business, and coffins selling like hot cakes.
This anthology is a wonderful master piece of poetry suitable for use in schools and colleges where poetry is taught. Of course the quality of the paper used is thin hence the pages can be easily torn and this is where the book requires proper handling.
Authors of the anthology are lectures at Mzuzu University. The anthology was edited by Professor David Rubadiri and published by Malawi Writers Union (MAWU)
Divided into six thematic areas, poems from the warm heart is there to touch your heart, titillate your senses, and heighten your awareness on a diverse range of issues taking place in the universe. By the moment you complete the adventurous journey in the book you will have come across a wide array of poetry spanning the following areas: social perception and justice, love and romance, suffering and lamentation, life experiences, culture, politics and nature.
The best barometer for measuring the poetical mastery in the anthology is through the writing skills incorporated. Poems in the anthology encompass admirable poetical skills ranging from rhythm to rhyme, alliteration to assonance, onomatopoeia to repetition, imagery to figurative language, and finally emotional force.
Marisen Mwale combines rhythm, rhyme and alliteration in the poem: Life, oh, futile life! The second stanza goes: then do we discern, the ill-conceived fruits of destiny/are but malignant mandibles of disguised strife/when the once esteemed beam of light/forever becomes a pall of eternal night/ and abruptly all dreams drift from dumbfounded mind/then do we comprehend how like chasing the wind/ the ill-conceived fruits of destiny are/ how vain full of bizarre palpitations of the heart.
Some poems in the anthology flow with the semblance of the metaphysical poems of 17th and 18th century grand poets such as John Keats, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Andrew Marvel. Reciting Love Dream by Mike Zulu and To my love a dedication by Marisen Mwale, one recalls Andrew Marvel’s famous poem: To his coy mistress. Of course the flow and the choice of the words differ but the angle addressed seems similar. Others have the nostalgic touch like those of leopard Senghor. There is also a revolution angle in some pieces, probably weaved in the poetical touch of Africa’s great like David Rubadiri, Niyi Osundare, Cyril Cheney-Cooker and Dennis Brutus.
As the poems flow with an admirable range of poetical elements, one also notes that the poems have been written in different types of poetry. In the anthology are narrative poems, lyrical poems, limericks, free verse and choral poetry. While Poems from the warm heart express feelings, so too does it also weave into the labyrinths of soul searching. Some poems question: why is sin a sin? Why do we always ask what is wrong with others than what is right with them? The soul search goes deeper into the illusions of democracy. Change, yes, things have changed. But the other changes are detrimental. Cited in one of the poems include: the kwacha growing inflationary wings, girls auctioning their bodies through prostitution, trees looting for charcoal, orphan care becoming a booming business, and coffins selling like hot cakes.
This anthology is a wonderful master piece of poetry suitable for use in schools and colleges where poetry is taught. Of course the quality of the paper used is thin hence the pages can be easily torn and this is where the book requires proper handling.
Authors of the anthology are lectures at Mzuzu University. The anthology was edited by Professor David Rubadiri and published by Malawi Writers Union (MAWU)
