To Set Her Heart On Fire
to set the much-needed dialogue in motion
there had to be poetry & poetry & devotion
she didn’t mince her words at all, she hit it
she demanded & desired to see nothing short of it:
she called for an ecstatic expression of emotions
a freely & furiously lively ,lovely exhibition of yens
a river filled with an explosion of verve and verse
and that was her basis for an engagement, a discourse
The Rhythm Of Africa
Its dishes are rich in culture
Servings of fresh injera & tibs
Shiro, doro wot, what a capture
Vegies, spiced butter, meat like ribs!
Kenya ,a taste of maize meal, a taste of ugali
Menus to suit all palates, religious dietary needs
Potatoes, corn, beans, cassava, yam, pumpkins in Kigali
African music echoes across all colours, countries & creeds
Whirling In The Open In Bulawayo
Outdoors in one worthy season
Barbequed meat and all- served
Babies crying, smoke one reason
But their feasting moms unnerved
Beautiful happy souls hooked on meat
Roasted to perfection, what a delicacy
Without Afro-music the party is incomplete
Bulawayo, a fabulous food haunt and fantasy
Enchanted And Eloped
she was short and slender
her voice vivid and tender
it beamed an invisible smile
infectious even from a mile
she was a blessing to her patients
as she treated them like her parents
she told them high blood was manageable
with diet and lifestyle changes—all was doable
one day one foreign suitor charmed away the adorable
the one doctor whose services poor elders found invaluable
Artist:
A 2019 Pushcart Prize nominee, Ndabas poems have been widely anthologised. Sibanda is the author of The Gushungo Way, Sleeping Rivers, Love O’clock, The Dead Must Be Sobbing, Football of Fools, Cutting-edge Cache: Unsympathetic Untruth, Of the Saliva and the Tongue, When Inspiration Sings In Silence and Poetry Pharmacy. His work is featured in The Anthology House, in The New Shoots Anthology, and in The Van Gogh Anthology, and A Worldwide Anthology of One Hundred Poetic Intersections. Some of Ndabas works are found or forthcoming in Page & Spine, Peeking Cat, Piker Press , SCARLET LEAF REVIEW , Universidad Complutense de Madrid, the Pangolin Review, Kalahari Review ,Botsotso, The Ofi Press Magazine, Hawaii Pacific Review, Deltona Howl, The song is, Indian Review, Eunoia Review, JONAH magazine, Saraba Magazine, Poetry Potion, Saraba Magazine, The Borfski Press, Snippets, East Coast Literary Review, Random Poem Tree, festival-of-language and Whispering Prairie Press.
Sibandas forthcoming book Notes, Themes, Things And Other Things: Confronting Controversies ,Contradictions And Indoctrinations was considered for The 2019 Restless Book Prize for New Immigrant Writing in Nonfiction. Ndabas other forthcoming book Cabinet Meetings: Of Big And Small Preys was considered for The Graywolf Press Africa Prize 2018.
Sibandas other forthcoming books include Timbomb, Dear Dawn And Daylight, Sometimes Seasons Come With Unseasonal Harvests, A Different Ballgame and The Way Forward. Ndaba blogs here: Let`s Get Cracking! – Ndaba Sibanda - WordPress.com
