Poetry and I

With the passing of years, I have come to know a lot of poets from different backgrounds. And with all of them I've shared the stage and the Word. I've come to appreciate many forms and styles of both writing and performing poetry. It made me think about the times I started writing poetry many years ago.

At my age I am already regarded by many in Namibia as a veteran in poetry. But again you must understand that Namibia is a politically young nation and everything we did the past 20 odd years was regarded as pioneering. So I am regarded as a poineer of poetry. This is the situation in Nambia.

Having been part of many poetry events and especially festivals, I have come to see myself as a companion in this great trek of forming meaning through poetry. I am just an infant in the village of poets and I am quite appreciative of that. As being an infant, it helps me to learn from the global veterans of poetry, prose and other creative writings.

I have discussed poetry with elders, grey haired poets who have parentally breathed inspiration in my writing and involvement in poetry. Like they say a person is a person because of other people. The same goes for me. I am a poet because of other poets.

Inspiration does not only come from the elders but also from the younger ones. I have met young poets who are transforming the way poetry is performed. Even though at times, they all sound the same and copy more from other people than invent their own styles of performing poetry. Despite this, they gave me a sense that poetry doesn't belong in the shelves of member driven libraries. They themselves have become the libraries, books that can spit rhyms and bring to life the word written on a piece of paper.

Poetry has come of age, even in Namibia and it brings joy to me. A twenty years process for me is re-volutionised in a matter of months. There are more inspirations and more younger people have opinions about everything. Hence the desire to be heard and seen.