Whispers from the Unseen » Cosmo Pieterse

Murdered by Suicide: For Ingrid Jonker

Cosmo Pieterse — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:15:15 +0000

(Jy’t my gekierang, Dolie)

   I can’t remember, baby,
   What colours were your eyes;
   I never came so near to
   You to realize
   Their deep intricacies.

   I met you once, remember,
   And you mistook me for
   Another–but I tremble
   When I recall that your
Body looked so young for eyes of such deep loss, such deep remorse.

   Remembering that meeting
   And how your passion took
   The breath from me, I know your bleeding
   Death must be a dark mistake
   Numb hands stole from a book.

   Baby, bodies fumble
   Through agonies of self
   And others who dissemble
   Life and identity: they halve
   Our love. But can dead hatred help?

   You sang of a dead baby
   A simple lullaby.
   You sang to a small body
   Of life. How could you die?
   You told us to remember. Why?

from Exile’s Re-Initiation

Cosmo Pieterse — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 04:07:55 +0000

I. Painter, Maker, Musician

   No poem is ever completed
   No dance knows the perfect
   Beat of his heart when the dancer’s feet are toeless and so
defeated
   But we go on, we go on and act

We go on and act
Now that the circle is drawn

Now that the circle is drawn
You can see the dim outlines of dawn

   You can see the dim outlines of lawns and a dawn
   On the horizon of our faces
   And each who follows will follow a line and trace
anew a new shape whatever the line he retraces.

   Each who follows will follow,
   will follow a line and trace anew,
   and trace anew a new shape–
   whatever the line he retraces:

Mountain, or ocean, or fire, or the sky’s grey arc:
he will wield a palette of possible poems.

Johannesburg at Dawn