The Careless Cook, published in A Thousand Voices Rising, order your copy from www.bnpoetryaward.co.ug

THE CARELESS COOK
The pot is boiling, boiling
And boiling to spill over
But you don’t know
Because you are a careless cook.

James Dwalu, Liberia

RUKUTURA/RED-POEM BY PATIENCE NITUMWESIGA,

RUTUKURA

kammyasyamyasya
kammurinkanya
ka'goondagoonda
keiruka.

kammurusyamurusya
ka'yetoroora
ka'shwarashwara
keiruka.

keirukanga
ka'muriinkanya
Ka'barabaruka
Keiruka.

Tigwaaba mugyera, bakanaabiiremu
Tigwaaba murabyo, bakaagutiinire
Tigwaaba muriro, bakaagwotsire
Tizaaba na'nsiriira, bakaazakize.

Kaaba rutukura
Kaaza burihamwe
Keijuza empaanga
Keiruka.

Babeiha ngu nikabi
ngu keine n'oburofa
Beiba ebyaako byoona
ngu tikeine buganzi
Baarya ebyokurya byaako
ngu nikagura zingahi
Bakireeba kaahwayo
ngu nikeenda obuyambi

Haza kataraaka
Katyo kaaguma
Kaacura kaaborooga
Kwonka kaahunama
Keiruka.

Ka'shondashonda
Ka'tonzyatonzya
Kashataguruka
Kaayebaziira
Keiruka

Ka'toonyatoonya
Kayetereeza
Kaayecureeza
Kaabaha amagara
Keiruka
Enfeerwa yaako bakigishumbusha
Ngu eshi nikatungwa ebyabusha

Patience Nitumwesiga
Uganda

RED

It twinkles
It glitters
It's frail
It flows.

It flashes
It wanders
It blushes
It flows

It runs
It glistens
It sparkles
It flows

It isn't a river, they would bathe in it
It isn't lightning, they would be scared
It isn't fire, they would sit by it
It isn't sparks, they would light them up

It is red
It is everywhere
It fills up valleys
It flows

They lie that it's ugly
and say it is unclean
They rob all it has
and say it has no honor
They eat its food
and ask for its price
And when it's broken
They say it needs help

O it scatters
Dear me, it endures
It screams and yells
Yet it remains silent
It flows

It picks all it can
It grieves
It explodes
It weaves its pieces together
It flows

It drips
It gathers its grip
It humbles itself
It gives them life
It flows.

when its loss is compensated
they say it thrives on favors.

Patience Nitumwesiga
Uganda

Better At Dawn by Barbara Oketta

Better at dawn

When all is silent and the rhythm of the night takes control
And the whisper of your hoarse voice penetrates my being
And everything else does not matter
I say, better at dawn.
When the Chirrup of the birds
Is as distant as a dream,
And your embrace as cajoling as a baby’s stare.
And my hunger for you as desperate as a sneeze,
I say, better at dawn,
When the children are dead asleep
And the maid’s snore fills the house
And the neighbors’ dog
Provides the distraction-
Better at dawn.
Not in the morning when the cups and saucers clatter
And the fear of the school bus
As alive as dawn,
Or lunch time, when the sounds of the keyboard fill the space
As the boss shouts ‘today is the dead-line’
And there is hardly time to sing,
Or in the evening when the family is bustling
And the 9 o’clock news fills the T.V room
As the children run and unsettle everything
Knowing that family time is an unbroken tradition,
I say better at dawn
When the world is frozen
And the rhythm of our bodies much sweeter,
For then, only at dawn
Can I dance to our music?  

Barbara Oketta
Uganda


Published in A Thousand Voices Rising. Buy a copy in Kampala at 20,000/- during the 13t Februaru reading and get wordy cakes for free.

A THOUSAND VOICES RISING: AN ANTHOLOGY BY AFRICAN POETS

This anthology is a collection of personal journeys of Transculture, freeing our literary minds from critical attitudes. It is a summation of many conversations, lots of reading, sharing of dreams and taking risks so that this product would come to be. It is a product of BN Poetry Foundation work. The compilation and editing was done by Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva. In 2009, I began an annual poetry award for Ugandan women because I felt sincerely that poetry would change the political, economic and social system in Uganda and corruption would recede with each new verse from well-meaning poets. While there has been significant positive change and growth over the past five years from the award, the system remains the same. We can still however, through poetry, free ourselves from the rigor of this very system. I still believe in art for social change but more profoundly, I believe that poetry ultimately frees individuals. Poetry is borderless, colourless and timeless. It speaks every language and understands every joy and predicament. It is fine literary art. While I do believe in the advantages of discipline and structure from academia, family and tradition, I firmly believe that within that, we can still be free. Members of the writers here were part of the Crossing Borders writing and Radiophonics mentorship programmes which ran from 2001 to 2010. The mentors from Lancaster University used creative virtual discourse to engage the writers. There are poems here from novices, winners of the Caine Prize, Sillerman Book Prize the BN Poetry Award and those shortlisted for Poetry Foundation Ghana prize, the African Poetry Book Fund prize, Short Story Day Africa, those published and unpublished, poems about heartbreak, genocide, love, leadership, inspiration, next door neighbours, money, faith, landscape, personal journeys, family, children and education. There are poems from spoken word poets and from timid poets those who speak English as a second language and have translated their poetry from Luganda, French, Acoli, Runyakitara. Poems from Algeria, Caribbean, The Democratic Republic of Congo Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe and poets based in Norway, The U.K and The U.S. That is the essence of this anthology. It is about new life and old life, about every day, the past, the future and the unknown. We have decided to include African Poetry in the title because of many reasons, one of which can be summarized from Tendai Huchu’s essay, The Problem of The African Reader, published in Afro Futures magazine in 2012. He said that while African writers argue that Western writers do not suffer the same limiting label, a large fundamental cause is because African writers can barely exist without the larger Western audience and until more readers emerge from our continent, this problem will remain. I did not help the poets in this anthology to write but merely guided a few in the process and I know that with extensive reading, their literary desires will be met. As Professor Rainer Rilke said in Letters to a Young Poet, “There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple "I must", then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse. Then come close to Nature. Then, as if no one had ever tried before, try to say what you see and feel and love and lose.” Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva Founder of the annual BN Poetry Award that coordinates annual poetry competitions for Africans. BN stands for Babishai Niwe, formerly, Beverley Nambozo. http://www.bnpoetryaward.co.ug http://bnpoetryaward.blogspot.com