We have everything (Young Galaxy)

Oh spare me today
I've had enough of the hurry hurry
Just let the day rise easy
And take over

We're swimming and I keep going under
Had enough of the fog, sheets, and thunder
Can't we begin being bored and breezy
See our way back into a clearing day

Fettle Fox launch @ the Rondebosch Potters Market

My talented sister Thalea is part of a group of ceramicists who go by the enviably cool moniker "Fettle Fox". If you are around Cape Town, join them at the Rondebosch Potters Market on 23 March 2013  as they launch their new "Candy Can" range of ceramics. 

Good times

Just two guys, a shopping trolley and a dark and empty parking lot.

Obviously.

Tristan (aka Six / The Boy / Thing Two) and my brother Michael, 8 February 2013,
just before taking that trolley for a spin

I Remain Indoors (Gary Cummiskey)

Gary Cummiskey has a new e-chapbook, titled I Remain Indoors, out with Tearoom Books.

I Remain Indoors is a collection of short poems by Gary Cummiskey, one of South Africa's leading alternative poets. The collection deals with ordinary moments, mundane even, but Cummiskey deftly pinpoints their vitality and fragility. The poems in I Remain Indoors are like text messages from a man a minute ahead of the rest of the city.

Beat the Dust: the Mad March issue, 2013

I am very pleased to be featured in the Mad March issue of Beat the Dust, along with Steve Finbow, Joanna Walsh, Jarred McGinnis, Adam Biles, Susana Medina, Steve Ely and Yrsa Daley-Ward.

Apart from great writing, you also get everybody's playlists of their five favourite sad songs. Take a hankie.

The full issue is here; my contribution is here.
You can also download the full-colour printable chapbook. Melissa's background note to the issue is here.

The darker sooner (Catherine Wing)

Then came the darker sooner,

came the later lower.

We were no longer a sweeter-here

happily-ever-after. We were after ever.

We were farther and further.

More was the word we used for harder.

Lost was our standard-bearer.

Our gods were fallen faster,

and fallen larger.

The day was duller, duller

was disaster. Our charge was error.

Instead of leader we had louder,

instead of lover, never. And over this river

broke the winter’s black weather.


Via 32poems.      

From: "The memory hole" (Michael Chabon, Manhood for Amateurs)

I will be haunted by the memory of the way my younger daughter looks at me when she chances upon a crumpled sheet of paper in the recycling bin, bearing the picture, the very portrait, of five minutes stolen from the headlong rush of their hour in my care: She looks betrayed.

"I don't know how that got in there," I tell her. "That was clearly a mistake. What a great dog."

"It's a girl kung fu master."

"Of course," I say. When she isn't looking, I throw it away again.

It's not only her artwork that I'm busy throwing away. Almost every hour that I spend with my children is disposed of just as surely, tossed aside, burned through like money by a man on a spree. The sum total of my clear memories of them - of their unintended aphorisms, gnomic jokes, and the sad plain truths they have expressed about the world; of incidents of precociousness, Gothic madness, sleepwalking, mythomania, and vomiting; of the way light has struck their hair or eyelashes on vanished afternoons; of the stupefying tedium of games we have played on rainy Sundays; of highlights and horrors from their encyclopedic history of odorousness; of the 297,000 minor kvetchings and heartfelt pleas I have responded to over the past eleven years with fury, tenderness, utter lack of interest, or a heartless and automatic compassion - those memories, when combined with the sum total of photographs that we have managed to take, probably add up, for all four of my children, to under 1 percent of everything that we have undergone, lived through, and taken pleasure in together.

The truth is that in every way, I am squandering the treasure of my life. It's not that I don't take enough pictures, though I don't, or that I don't keep a diary, though iCal and my monthly Visa bill are the closest I come to a thoughtful prose record of events. Every day is like a kid's drawing, offered to you with a strange mixture of ceremoniousness and offhand disregard, yours for the keeping. Some of the days are rich and complicated, others inscrutable, others little more than a stray gray mark on a ragged page. Some you manage to hang on to, though your reasons for doing so are often hard to fathom. But most of them you just ball up and throw away.

Michael Chabon, "The memory hole" (Manhood for amateurs, 2011, Harper Collins, pp. 40-41)

Podcast on Badilisha Radio

I recently had the pleasure of being invited to participate in a podcast for Badilisha Radio, an online collection of readings by African poets. 

"Badilisha Poetry Radio uniquely focuses on podcasts by poets from the African Continent and its Diaspora. This online platform creates a dynamic space in which to appreciate, celebrate and discover contemporary Pan-African poetry. The weekly podcasts feature a vast spectrum of voices across poetic genres."

You can listen to my podcast here. And while you're there, take some time to browse through the archives for some amazing readings by some of my favourite poets, like Antjie Krog, Kelwyn Sole, Breyten Breytenbach, Genna Gardini, Phillippa Yaa de Villiers and many many more.

Ho Hey - Live (The Lumineers)

The Common issue 04 now online

The Common issue 04 contains a selection of South African poetry, curated by Kelwyn Sole. This issue is now available online - click through for some great contemporary South African poetry, and more (including essays and photos). South African contributors include:

Kelwyn Sole
Angifi Proctor Dladla
Ingrid de Kok
Ari Sitas
Yvette Christiansë
Karen Press
Makhosazana Xaba
Finuala Dowling
Kobus Moolman
Lesego Rampolokeng
Liesl Jobson
Rustum Kozain
Mxolisi Nyezwa
Gabeba Baderoon
Fiona Zerbst
Alan Finlay
Khulile Nxumalo
Malika Ndlovu
Vonani Bila
Haidee Kruger
Nadine Botha
Katharine Kilalea
Genna Gardini

The Girl (September 2012)

At the Starling & Hero Bicycle Cafe

Love Is All (The Tallest Man on Earth)

Reading

Dye Hard interview

Gary Cummiskey of Dye Hard Press recently invited me to take part in his series of Dye Hard interviews, which include interviews with poets like Kelwyn Sole, Dawn Garisch, Vonani Bila, Pravasan Pillay, Kobus Moolman and Alan Finlay.

You can read the interview here.

Lettering vs calligraphy

Lettering vs Calligraphy’is a project by Giuseppe Salerno and Martina Flor. It consists of a visual dialogue between a letterer and a calligrapher, where they draw/write a letter responding to a keyword given by a moderator. The adventure aims to explore the capabilities of the two technical approaches.
It delivers one letter daily and takes place online, where the visitors are invited to vote for their favourite.

Distinguished "U"

Sophisticated "3"

Flexible "X"

Roman "L"

Simple "Z"

Catching butterflies (Mateke, near Thabazimbi, 03/12/2012)

Six, looking for butterflies

Three, holding a slightly drunk butterfly
(I had to hold his fingers down; the instinct to grasp at the butterfly was just too strong)

Reading

Indiegogo campaign to raise funds to publish a new Small Publishers' Catalogue

Colleen Higgs of Modjaji Books has launched an indiegogo campaign to raise funds to publish a new Small Publisher's Catalogue for Africa.

On the importance of small publishers, Colleen writes:

Small publishers are not afraid to take risks. They are often the first to discover and print new and original writing. Many people not even those in the book world, such as librarians, booksellers, larger publishers, and books page editors are not aware of the extent and fertility of this part of the book world. Putting this catalogue out there is a way of uncovering and shining a light on this important work.
We're  appealing to you to get involved to create awareness and excitement about small-scale and independent publishing in Africa.
The Small Publishers Catalogue is a way of letting more people know about the work of independent and small publishers in Africa. Unless the information is collated it is difficult to find contact details or to know who is involved and who is doing what and where.
The Catalogue offers insight into the extent of small publishing. It reveals the number of committed writers and publishers toiling away, doing extraordinary, creative cultural work.
Some of those who are interested in the catalogue are libraries all over the world that have Africana collections. Also libraries that have collections of African literature, women's literature, gender studies, who are interested in the stories and experiences of people who live in particular places and not just in what they can glean from the internet or the news.
There are lots of publishers who do amazing work, getting out the stories and experiences and writings of people all over the continent which enable us to understand our worlds and ourselves differently.
By putting all of these publishers onto the radar of all of those who are interested, you will assist in growing readership, and in funding these publishers in a sustainable way.

I couldn't agree more.

Please head over to the indiegogo project where you can get more information, and make a contribution. Even the smallest contribution helps. Also - please spread the word!

Launch of The Reckless Sleeper (Love Books, Melvile, 29 November 2012)

Gary Cummiskey and Haidee Kruger in conversation

Kate Rogan, Gary Cummiskey and Haidee Kruger

Haidee Kruger

The Reckless Sleeper featured on Peony Moon

A lovely feature on The Reckless Sleeper is up on Michelle McGrane's contemporary poetry site, Peony Moon.

(A warning: Once you're there, you may find it hard to leave -- it really is one of the best contemporary poetry sites around.)