eTHEKWINI for Edessa and all the poets and celebrants: Poetry Africa 2002 Poem by Keorapetse Kgositsile

I plunge into language
hoping to emerge with the shout
or whisper of the quiet and secret places
my sister celebrates
the tender and blue flame
of her voice moving us
deep
in
to all that we are
or could be. Here we must

jump to recreate ourselves where
Keith Jarrett warns us, there's no way
to practise jumping except by jumping

Like any child you know
I grow. When they ask me then, since
I have been to these big waters here
how does the tree in water grow
will I know what to say?

Here amongst the sounds
of the ocean, the river that moves
like the dancer, and the hills
whose back you must ride
any where you want to go,
I have met the whole world
in motion like this ocean