Farewells ~ Zinhle Ndlovu

Farewells Never Existed Yet Goodbyes Are Persisted

I was thinking of true inspiration but then you came to mind. I have a few memories but i don't know where to start.

Do you remember the first day you looked me in the eye and told me i shouldn't hide my gift...well I'm remembering the little times we spent together and i just want to say :

"Farewells never existed yet goodbyes are still persisted"

We'll be so distant as if you were in pluto and i was in plant earth, yet i know destiny is not my enemy ever since i was told that everything happens for a reason. At first i feel my words were jailed but then you freed me.

This is not farewell, we'll stay well, please go out there and excell maybe we'll move together emotionally and the eyes may lose sight but the love will never be torn apart as farewells never existed.

A Mother's Love

"Never give up my child.
Do your best and don't forget to smile."

Sometimes we go wild but our parents are prepared to walk the mile. A mother is a woman, a woman is love and love is a mother of happiness. The guilt is in your heart and mind as soon as you realize that a mother's imagination of losing you is scary.

I utter truth and expose gratitude while my mom is my utmost atitude, for the words i speak travel continuously beyond glorious lands and I feel my mother's warm embrace as it never ends.

The guilt is remembering all the wrong I've done to make her sad and sometimes really mad...No words can express how i feel because she gives me love in a gesture of a simple day meal.

My mother's love is beyond the atmosphere she is a shining amour with a spear to destroy fear when it comes near. Her voices is a melody of motivation so meaningful that when she calls my name i truly realize that we are beautiful 'Zinhle'. Her words make more sense to me now than they did yesterday.

"Never give up my child.
Do your best and don't forget to smile."



© Zinhle Ndlovu

***
Grade 12
***

The Purest Truth ~ Naadir Vorajee

I went upon a lonely walk and
stumbled upon a heart
I wanted to know the warmth it held so
I took it all apart
Its tears fell upon my face as
I felt all of its pain
I often took and never returned and
still that heart remained
When I got to the last piece
it sang a song of praise
It's sound so pure and peacefully put
until my end of days...
I never forgot that heart I broke,
its soft touches were sharp
It pierced my skin and entered my soul like
the sound from Orpheus' harp.

True love stands tall, its width unbound
it tells its truth to one
It never forgets its chosen soul even
when it is none.


Naadir Vorajee

***
Matriculant 2013
***

The Last Note ~ Mangaliso Xaba

He Acts Like He Is Happy
But meanwhile He Is Left Stranded In The Miseries Of Life.
He Is Sorry For Being A Disappointment To His Parents,
He Never Knew Life Would Have Such Heavy Currents.
He is Deeply Sorry to All Those he has Hurt,
Sorry For The :Heartbreaks, Empty Promises
And All The Ruined Relationships.
He Now Wants To Be Alone,
Tired Of Talking On The Phone, Tired Of Talking to Them All...
These Are His Last Words.
Final Piece To Apologize To The World...



© Mangaliso Mthandazi Xaba (MangzNation)


***
Matriculant 2018
***

I Still Love You ~ Mangaliso Xaba

I Just Woke Up Missing The Days We Had Back Then.
Love Was Real And You Were My Best Friend.
I Had No Money, But I Loved You Like I Can.
You Broke My Heart & Left It For Someone Else To Mend.
They Keep Telling Me To Leave The Past In The Past, And Focus On What I Have Today.
To Tell The Truth, Things Seem To Not Be Going My Way.
I Miss You And All The Moments That We Shared,
Me & You Were A Really Good Pair.
The Way You Left Me Knocked Me & Broke Me Into Lasting Sadness.
I Want You To Know That I Still Do Care.
This Might Look Like A Note From A Love Sick Puppy.
But I Had To Write It Because I Really Need You In My Life Honey.
You Gave Me Hope & Showed Me That Love From Deep Within Truly Does Exist.
That's Why I Cannot Give Up On You, I Really Cannot Submit.
You Really Are The One For Me, My Darling Baby Boo.
I Still Love You & That's The Only Truth.


© Mangaliso Mthandazi Xaba 
(MangzNation)

***
Matriculant 2018
***

Three Poems ~ Lindokuhle Mbatha

Life vs School

We see life at different perspectives
but we never see life as something good
why should it always be something sad
why is today's youth so depressed
Depressed because we taught how to be like that
Why can't schools teach us how to be
a good entrepreneur or something better
But we get taught about things we'll never need
Life and school is all the same
but it's how you look at the two different perspectives

Mind vs Heart

We choose in two different ways
Think about it
There is love at 1st sight
There is love after being friends with someone
Looking at her for the 1st time
made me think she was the one
when i never knew what was going inside
that mind and heart of hers
Knowing she was one beautiful girl
everyone knew and loved
but if only they knew
what was going on in that mind and heart
Many people like her body and smile
but they never know what is going in that mind and heart
Where does love reflect?
The mind or the heart?
That's one question we should all ask ourselves.

What is Happening in This World?

Why are young women being treated like this?
They are our future but yet we destroy them like this
Young women are being humiliated and left alone
and some don't even get the chance to be able to open
those precious , God given eyes because their souls are taken away
What is really happening to this world
What happened to unity
What happened to equality
This world is turning into something else
We state to love the ones we love
and say we don't want to lose them
yet we do everything to destroy and lose them...
What is happening to this world?



© Lindokuhle Mbatha

***
Grade 11
***

A Poem for the Beginning of Spring ~ Malwazi Moholi

Love in Sadness

Written in September 2019


There are scars in place of serious wounds,
although, only after some time.
Some wounds take longer to heal,
while some cause more anguish, get distracted just to forget the anxiety.
Physical wounds would heal and leave a scar,
yet, emotional wounds reminisce and never really heal,
always holding back melancholic sounds
while painting a burning Cistus.

A "self-portrait," you said.
"Tomorrow, You will die," you said.
Even though you knew nothing of what you were saying,
you knew exactly how to inflict the pain you have always had.
Treating me as your own canvas,
painting pretty flowers of different colors on my flesh,
while trying to hide your lonely, painful secret.
I was a burning Cistus, waiting for someone to put out the fire and give me water.
The bruises you painted on my body eventually disappeared,
but my fear and anxiety for you lingered...
It lingered long after I burned in your eyes.

Time passed and watered my wounds,
nourished my heart and gave me the hope I needed to bloom again.
I grew to experience life with a different perspective,
from a burning Cistus to the surviving Rosemary.

From lost hope and despair
to an ounce of light and beauty within the valley of tears and shadows that I lived.

A Rosemary growing in place of a deep emotional wound.
A physical change to embrace my change in emotion.


© Malwazi Moholi

***
Matriculant 2018
***

You ~ Vuyani Ntshingila

Your golden hair shines,
 Brightly blinding my eyes,
 I guess you could say,
 I’m blinded by love.
Your tongue whispers,
Whispers sweet nothings in my ear,
To a normal person it would make no sense,
But I know exactly what you mean.
Your skin resembles dark chocolate,
Bitter to those who taste hastily,
And attracts those,
Who take time to taste
Your heart though not flawless,
Is filled with good intentions and compassion,
With space to love,
It reminds you of past failures.
You, Oh you cause sleepless nights,
To those who dare think of you,
Oh how I wish I had you.




© Vuyani Ntshingila

***
MATRICULANT 2018
***

SILHOUETTE ~ Nkazimulo Mvemve

"She's so perfect, so humble."
I say in my mind as it is the only thing that I thought every time I saw her.

As to why I did not speak about how I felt?
I do not know, with reasoning so parallel to rejection I hesitated in my attempts.
But in fact my motives were not that of a Flirtatious type but one filled with Admiraton.
She was beauteous in every way.

I have no recollection of why failed to acknowledge her presence before.
At first she was just another person that drifted past me, the second time, there was little emotion when I saw her from a distance.
Yet I don't know if the third time was the charm but I saw a different glow, an Aura to put it more correctly.

And I now I can't stop thinking about her, a Silhouette of biblical proportion.
Creepish looks of profound awe, was all I was able to do.
When she sat next to me our conversations were brief personality exchanges, family, and school matter.
I immediately felt ashamed because as a Dude I should have been able to flirt with her.

Physical appearances may not have been of her standard I guess but, confidence has always been an opposing factor when it came to that.
Although in her case she gleamed purity with her every smile, shunning away the best-looking Playboys, giving the littlest attention to comedic attempts from the Best-boy and me the guy who she probably thought was just male figured shadow.

My only attempt at reaching out to her is a poem she'll probably never.
I'm sceptical as to whether my words will ever meet her eyes.
She was not like every other girl, she was uniquely of her her own status, in my veiw standing far higher than the rest, she wasn't the most popular but she peaked at beauty, with no shame towards her ethnicity she wore her crown well.

In a so called Poets attempt my only Flirtatious attempt is this I offer it to every single girl in the world the Silhouettes of perfection and beauty.



©  Nkazimulo Mvemve

***
GRADE 12
***

Changes, Goodbyes, Thank You ~ Uwais Coetzee

Changes

He said he’d always choose her
But now he wasn’t so sure.
He’d seen so many faces,
He’d seen so much more.
He’d found his ways to pass the time
And how to forget about his pain.
But his usual old tendencies had
Seemed to stay the same.
He had his words,
Lived in the dark,
Blocked out the world
But left his mark.
He’d changed so much
And yet stayed the same
and was always but always
sticking to his game.
He missed the way they spoke
But not enough to speak
And he’d found his level of nonchalant
He’d set out to seek.
He was out to live his life
And face his problems in a line
But these days people
Could face two at a time.

Goodbyes

The tears running down our faces
Our unwavering and incurable shivers.
Our tortured goodbyes
Embraced us more than
We could ever embrace
Each other.
Quivering bottom lips
And tears stained faces
Forced us to wander away
From our places.
Out of our zones
And into each other’s comfort
Finding companionship in
Each other’s solidarity,
With mutual pain
Being
The suffering that bound us together.
Tears still rolling and cheeks
Still wet, we were still warm
In the embrace of the fate
Waiting for the cold. The coldest part,
Things are always coldest as soon as they
Separate.

Thank you

Thank you for teaching me, whether it
Had to be via the hard route or not, your
Not loving me taught me how to love.
The depth of your eyes showed me that
There are things more beautiful than
Beauty itself. Your imperfections showed
Me just how ugly perfection is. Your
Existence became synonymous with love
For me ever since we started speaking.
You showed me the love that I never saw
Before. You taught me that love could
Never have been one dimensional, that even
Pain from love is love in itself.
Thank you for not loving me.
It was your eyes and not the sea nor the
Sky that taught me why I loved the blue
And even though I’ll love you more than you’ll
Ever see, thank you for never loving me.


© Uwais Coetzee

***
Matriculant 2018

***

Destiny, Distance, Dreams ~ Uwais Coetzee

Destiny

Some things in this world
Were just meant to be.
Like the story in a book,
I believe in destiny.
Like the sky was meant to be blue
And the birds meant to fly
And wolves meant to howl
And people meant to cry.
Rain was meant to fall and
Souls were meant to combine
And destiny is always in
A straight line.
If wars were meant to happen
And people were meant to fight
And people who were dying
Were meant to see the light.
If suicide is normal
And time can never change
Is life in enjoyment normal
And suffering is strange?
If reading was always possible
And people were meant to write,
Then the sun would always go down
And it’d be dark at night?
If roses were always red,
And violets always blue
Would living always be this way?
And I’d be forced to love you?

Distance

Physical distance was never
A problem for a yearning love.
When space separate, the soul
Connects. You may never have been
Around but I learned to draw
Your eyes with my mind
And colour them in with my soul.
Physical distance never left me
Empty because imagination made your
Voice and warmth is creatable.
The mind is beautiful
And the mind is wise,
It can be false warmth
And false eyes
And can continue one’s love
To the point of a burn
But the limit of the mind,
It can’t make people love in return.

Dreams

He awoke in his bed
With tears on his face.
He awoke but he felt
Oddly out of place.
Awoke and felt the
World that he knew was fake.
He awoke but really
Didn’t feel awake.
In a state of minor consciousness
He dreamed a dream,
He dreamed of a scene
too good to be seen,
too perfect it was obscene
so, it was deemed fake
or so it would seem, so
it remained a dream.
He saw it nonetheless
Even though it was in his mind
And he realized that life
Could never be kind.
The dream was over
But the pain would remain
She was the only thing
He’d never obtain.
If he worked hard enough
He could have all the money,
If he moved somewhere nice
He could live where it was sunny.
If he waited, he might
Even find a new love
But any chick sadly doesn’t
compare to the white dove.
He couldn’t have her
Because it was out of his control
And this thought left him feeling
Less than whole.
He awoke that morning learning one
Thing from that dream.
That life can never
Be as it seems.


© Uwais Coetzee

***
Matriculant 2018

***

Connection, Cages, Band-Aids ~ Uwais Coetzee

Connection

If people left their footprints on every
Place their presence had been, your
Outline would walk wonders on
The traces of my skin. Not necessarily
Physically but touches of the mind as if
Touching your body meant less than the
Soles of our feet meant to clouds, less than
Sharks meant parrots or any other polar
Opposite that were never meant to meet, my
touch meant nothing to you because who needs
to feel hands when your souls connect?

Cages

People cage themselves, as if being
Trapped in a box is all we’ve
Ever meant to be. We live holed
Away as if reality was never tangible, as
If imagination and dreams were intangible
To make into reality. Trapped in boxes
Of black and white without ever
Realizing that the colour we seek can
Be found by widening reality to
Incorporate the imagination we’ve always
Excluded therefrom. We were always
On the edge of being innovative, creative,
Separated by our own societal boundaries
That keep us from dreams and hope.
We keep our worlds inn greys and shades
Thereof and staying inside of what we’ve seen
Not knowing that the sky is blue, the grass is green,
The sun is bright, and dreams and hope were always
Meant to have been ours. The sky
Has always been blue but our ability
To perceive it is what needed to be found too.

Band-Aids

When in pain people take the smallest
Things to turn into victories because that’s what
Needs to be done. Little stitches of a remedy
That turn into an entire band aid that
Replaces your presence until love comes again.
People say that something is still
Important if you still cry about it,
I think it’s time my eyes start to dry.


© Uwais Coetzee

***
Matriculant 2018
***

Energy, Footprints & Habits ~ Uwais Coetzee

Energy

Under a sky of a million stars, I saw
Instead the hope of there being hope.
I sit in a new life with new people
But a strange familiarity as if living
Is what destiny was all about.
Instead of where I am, instead of
What I do, instead of being depressed
And dwelling on you, I find myself
Too busy in expression to express.
Too busy crying with laughter to cry
In torture. My tears instead are
filled with the hope of a hope and
the waves of a light that shine brighter
than the stars I sat under tonight.
They say that energy can never be created
Nor can it be destroyed and only
Transferred. Well now the energy seems
To be mine. It’s our turn to shine.

Footprints

I follow your footprints every time you
Seem to cross this lonely mind of
Mine. I track you as if being a
Tracker was all I was ever meant
To be. Or not to be, because the
Question was never ‘who’ or ‘why’. You
See, those have always been two certain
Answers that go something like ‘you’
and ‘who else?’. The question was
always ‘when’, because it was me who
helped you from the trenches of a
broken heart but as soon as you
stopped using me as a step ladder
for your own gain I fell into those
same trenches of the same pain.
You see, the narrative has never
Been about you and I, it was always
You then I came tailing you waiting
To be in your tale for once. They
Say that Humpty Dumpty broke when he
Fell, but nowhere did it say he was an egg.
Humans can break irreparably too. Maybe
My fall just happened to be you.

Habits

I’ve heard to form a habit
It takes 21 days.
Did I think of you for 21 days
For you to be so thoroughly stuck in my ways?
You became a habit that
Wouldn’t leave no matter how many others
I picked up along the way.
So invested into me that any
Example of love I could find,
You’d be the only thing that
Would crash into my mind.
Habits stay habits because they are
Always around. Frame for frame, game
For difficult game, stride for increasing
Stride and lunge that leads to plunge.
In forgetting a habit, forgetting the habit
Becomes the habit you try to ultimately forget.
Forgetting a habit is like travelling to
A non-existent destination just like me forgetting you
Is like trying to procrastinate procrastination.
We’ll never get there.


© Uwais Coetzee

***
Matriculant 2018
***

Insanity ~ Uwais Coetzee

Light became the darkness
And blue looked like red
And the lace where he slept
Became a cage and not a bed.
He was going insane as
Black became white,
As joy became fake,
As flee became fight.
As anger became common
And tears became a friend.
As life became a blur,
As reality began to bend,
As words became forced
And silence was his way.
As his demons became his companions
And night became his day.
As he stayed inside and tried to hide
And he watched life from window pane
He slipped in and out reality.
He was slowly going insane.


© Uwais Coetzee

***
Matriculant 2018

***

Is it a Sin? ~ Uwais Coetzee

Is it a sin when someone
Leaves a place?
Not only leaves but
Leaves no trace.
Is it a sin to want what
Left you behind without waiting to turn?
Is it a sin to want to punish
Yourself and free them but take their burn?
Is it a sin to be all that you are
And possess so troubled a past?
Is it fair that what started so
Quick would burst in flames so fast?
I know that nothing lasts forever
And nothing that we have stays
But even though we separate we
Didn’t have to go separate ways.
Is it a sin to want
Things so desperately much
That you become conflicted
With pain as such?
Is it a sin to be wanted?
Is it a sin to feel lust?
Is it a sin to feel broken
By the breaking of trust?
Is it a sin to feel jealous because
You’re all I want to be?
Is it a sin to have you want me
Just for me?


© Uwais Coetzee

***
Matriculant 2018

***

Haiku & Other Poems ~ Uwais Coetzee

Haiku

She just might have been
The embodiment of all
I needed to know.

Home

They say that love
Is where the heart is.
But who ever said that home
Needs to be a place?

Comparison

If only she knew,
He compared the
Brightest stars to
Her dullest moments
And she won by far.



© Uwais Coetzee

***
Matriculant 2018

***

Life ~ Uwais Coetzee

I like the idea of us separating
And walking our separate ways
To someday meet again
Face to face.
Because nothing really ends
Not even life. It just continues
In the lives of those that it
Touched, in those that it felt,
In those that it held on the
Nights that holding ourselves together
Became our only objective.
Life is the life and life is
The light. Life is the darkest
Moments of the night. Life will
Always come even try as you might
To avoid the pain that you try to
Fight because even when the
Stars don’t shine, even when
You were never mine, even when
Wrong was close to right, the light
Always shines at the end of the night.


© Uwais Coetzee

***
Matriculant 2018
***

Intangible ~ Uwais Coetzee

He lives in the age of evil minds
And pretty faces.
Broken worlds but
Perfect places.
Deadly people with
Beautiful souls
And large hearts
That are filled with holes.
He lives in a world of
Blue eyes and blue lives
Of beautiful people with beautiful
Hearts that are hurt as soon as he
Meets them. Of people that might be
His were the circumstances different.
He came into peoples lives at just the right
Time, the time in which he could fall in
The love so hard that the lover didn’t know
He did. A love that was so deep he never
Stopped falling. With his feet having caved
And her feet solidly planted she was the
Root of his living abyss. The only solid thing
In his life was the only thing intangible to him.



© Uwais Coetzee

***
Matriculant 2018
***

Misfits ~ Uwais Coetzee

We sit in darkness and we
Wonder if there is anyone like us. If
Anyone is ever the same kind of broken,
The same kind of misfit to where
We fall together and stay there
Forever. That’s all that we’ve
Ever been, a generation of misfits
That is trying to find our own
Piece of the society without ever
Possibly realizing that we were
Never built to fit the puzzle and
We were never meant to conform
To the norm. We were always
Meant to be the puzzle piece that
Had one too many jagged edges, we
Were always meant to be the
Light that shone too bright.
None of us were meant to fit
The obscene moulds, we were
Always meant to break free because
Who ever meets someone and gets
Excited because they’re just like me?


©Uwais Coetzee

***
Matriculant 2018
***

Irrational ~ Uwais Coetzee

He was illogical, irrational
And no one knew why because
Not many people understand a troubled soul,
Not many people have ever felt cold,
Not externally but when the fire
Of your life burns out inside,
When the cold breath of a love
Has turned your tide
And love cannot change
When the circumstances do
Because if it did it
Was never love at all.
Because love is irrational
And doesn’t make sense
And in its presence, nothing ever does.
Because ‘E’ does not equal MC
Squares do not have equal side
By side is not next to
Be or not to because
Logic does not equal
Love.



© Uwais Coetzee

***
Matriculant 2018
***

Refuge ~ Uwais Coetzee

After saying I wouldn’t
I sit here ready to write.
Ready with gun in hand yet
Steady, unprepared to fight.
Is anyone ever ready for war?
Is anyone ready to battle?
Does anyone willingly go into the dark
With nothing but hope and pain as
Reminders of the light?
Is anyone ready to fight?
I write, not because I enjoy seeing
Pain on paper but put pen on paper
To see the pain you caused, instead
Of feel it. If seeing this pain is
More refuge than feeling it, I’d write
To you about you and me so you’d see
The damage hope could cause. I write
In hopes of finding the comfort that I never
Found in you. It’s funny how we seek
Acceptance and refuge from the sources of
The pain. It’s like trying to sooth a bullet
Wound with a pistol still hot from the shot.



© Uwais Coetzee

***
Matriculant 2018
***

Promise

People promise things
That never seem to materialize.
There are promises made
From sunset to sunrise,
Things that are said,
Things that we do
Leave others and ourselves
Feeling inevitably blue.
Gold rings and golden hearts
Are almost never the same.
The ones we thought we taught
The rules are the ones in charge of the game.
Word in life are
Unfortunately, a must
But most time times they’re
The spears that break our trust.
We promise things to others
Every single day.
We promise them a world
But we take theirs away.



©  Uwais Coetzee

***
Matriculant 2018
***

Paradoxes ~ Uwais Coetzee

Paradox

He was awake at 3am
Thoughts that flooded his mind
During the day now plagued
His thoughts at night.
Flashes of blue, white
Shades of the darkness were
The only things he wanted.
Tranquillity in chaos.
Peace in war.
Happiness in depression.
His mind was on the fore.
The grounds on which he built
His logic was skewed.
The fields in which his
Feelings fled, was burning.
The reality in which his
Heart bled, was aching.
Entirely. Completely.
A holy hole was filling him
Wholly.
The only paradox of existence:
It’s weird how emptiness fills our space.

Paradoxical Happiness

I know one day I’ll find
Love again and this time she’ll love me
Back. She’ll love me regardless of all the things
that I don’t have, regardless of all I lack.
She’ll love the person that you left in
The background. She’ll love the one who
Will always be there for her. In times
Of pain and in times of hurt love will
Be on the other end of the equation for
Once. A wise person once told me that
It takes a year and a day for pain to
Go away. Take a year to find that happiness
Like a golden treasure and add another day
Just for good measure. It’s not like I
Hate you, it’s just that love gets to a point
Where it hurts just as much as hate. And
One day if you finally decide that I was
Good enough for you, when you see who is
There, I might not be there. Because I know I’ll
Find happiness. Paradoxical happiness and it doesn’t
Seem fair. I’ll find happiness but you just
May not be there.



© Uwais Coetzee

***
Matriculant 2018
***

Runaway ~ Uwais Coetzee

I am fine most of the time
And honestly that’s true
But when I get myself down
I become inevitably blue.
I become alone in a crowd,
Solitary confinement sent there
By me. Judged by a judge that
Has no degree, that has no experience
In anything other than being human.
Thoughts of hopes that I wished
To attain but like a runaway
Train it bashed on my tracks
And it just led to pain. People say
Pain is how we know we’re alive
But way more wrong than right
Has ever been said because pain
For me simply feels dead.
The runaway train that is the
Thought of you is a paradox.
I like to think of trains, but like
You, a runaway is hard to catch.


© Uwais Coetzee

***
Matriculant 2018
***

Freedom, Shine, Home ~ Uwais Coetzee

Freedom

Only when awake
Do you stare at me like people stare
At walls: heartless and nonchalant. In
A way I guess I deserve that look from
You because all I ever did was
Support you without ever asking to be
Anything more than close to you.
All I’ve ever wanted was you or to
Stop feeling for you completely. It’s
Your fault that your name became synonymous
With love for me. You’ll always be the one
But I want to be free.

Shine

Even if we don’t shine forever,
Shine so brightly,
That no matter how briefly,
Your life is seen.

Home

They say that love
Is where the heart is.
But who ever said that home
Needs to be a place?




© Uwais Coetzee

***
Matriculant 2018
***

Stories ~ Uwais Coetzee

He told her stories of his childhood,
Stories from his past,
Of how his years and days
Went by so fast.
Of how he was always
By life bound
And how he always stayed
Close to the ground.
Of how his friends spoke
Behind his back
And of all the admirable
Qualities he’d lack.
He spoke of skies
And of the sea
Of how he envied the
Birds that were free,
Of how he loved winter
And savoured the cold
And how that was weird
Or so he was told.
He spoke of his demons
And things from deep within
And almost all the things
That lay beneath his skin.
He said he was in love
And it made his love a blur
But never did he ever say
That it was her.


© Uwais Coetzee

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Matriculant 2018
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We Live in an Age ~ Uwais Coetzee

We live in an age of
Bright screens and finger clicks,
Of loud music but faltering voices.
We sit and stand facing screens
As if our faces were never
Meant to face each other.
Screens replaced face
And life was filled with races
As if we were meant to compete
With each other and not ourselves.
Technology replaces human interaction
And likes replaced love.
Nobody else can feel anything for you,
The rain on our skin,
The sky and sun, screaming in your face.
The feeling of love by feeling grace
And the satisfaction of finishing things by
Following you’re your own pace.
Screens may replace faces and music
Replaces voices, likes may try as it might
But love can always come to the light.


© Uwais Coetzee


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Matriculant 2018
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What Is Death ~ Nkazimulo Mvemve

What is death, if it is not, the cruel prankster
that pulls the rug from beneath your feet?
If it is not, the violented safety of your apartment
complex? It comes and goes as it pleases.

What is death, if it is a sweet dream,
just waiting for you to be woken up?
If it is the Heaven or the Hell you believe in?
If it calls on a person, telling you 'they're dead'?

What is death, if it is peace?
If it is the end of pain and suffering.
If it rest from old age...?
If it is life in a spiritual plain?

What is death, if it is beauty?
The life of death, and the death of life.
What is death, if it is the silhouette of a
woman dressed in white, ready to embrace you?



© Nkazimulo Mvemve

***
GRADE 12
***

The Understanding ~ Nkazimulo Mvemve

I had an understanding with your parents...
I was so happy that they allowed me to date you.
I was relieved that the ball thats in-between us called mommy spoke to me and your dad...

The men - murderers of women - until they have a daughter...
Their own blood and flesh in their arms, he probably thought that your so beautiful you were his angel.
Keep your Halo high above your head and wear it well...
Well it fell a bit since a demon called nkazi entered your life a demon called a man - well technically he doesn't have his horns yet but he's still holds himself high for being him.
The evil single minded drive that causes them to even persue any Angels is what's hidden and what's precious to you.

Is it ever that lustful drive that ends up in disaster, mentally, socially and spiritually.
So shouldn't you fear that he doesn't think those things.
You saw him and feel in love with what he is, he got to know you and feel in love with who you are - you learned something from each other.
Precious information that you never knew and that nobody else ever told you...

A marriage of consciousness, yours and mine, you can't separate it not matter what you try...
The interlinking of past experiences and the revelation each other's mind...
A deep understanding that doesn't reveal what you may think, but it shows feelings, and we feel the same way.
You we feel separated but we aren't and I know that we never will be...

Our stars have been set in the universe, our love travels for miles and miles on end, and all creatures of unknown species see our love shine...
It's too bright.
This love burns...
It's hotter than anything you've ever experienced, it's dangerous even for us.
Fatal to our existence, a small fraction of collisions between us...
All that violence of clashing bodies, we chose not to move...
Abrasions visible to the eye and wounds deeper than the sea, I see we are stronger that what we thought we were.


We talked about separation today I didn't know that I mean so much to you - as I am your first everything - I mean many things to you and I have claimed your heart (was it a mistake) for my own and you have taken my mind and soul, I am no longer of God but of you.



© Nkazimulo Mvemve

***
GRADE 12
***

Cry, But Never Complain ~ Nkazimulo Mvemve

Cry... but never complain.
In the midst of the sorrow you caused me I never said anything.
Yet it's humorous when it seemingly happens to you.

Doesn't it? You felt I felt, you had the chance
to state your disheartening vices,
but I never said anything.
Fair not fair, you don't care in your eyes,
you're wired to believe that you were disciplining me.

Sticks and stones hurt and so do words too.
The right ones that make you feel:
 inferior, worthless, rubbish and in other cases specifically "dumb".

It's not that I haven't forgiven it, maybe,
just that I haven't forgotten everything about it.
The wheel turns as it pleases,
yet you never know what's turning and who is it turning to.




©  Nkazimulo Mvemve

***
GRADE 12
***

I Am Not What I Am ~ Nkazimulo Mvemve

Listen... Listen.
Listen to the hundreds, the thousands and millions,
hear the voice of many in the mouth of one.
The voice whose eyes speak more than its mouth.

All from the south, north, east and west.
All the four corners of this round globe, I exist.
In his mind, in her heart, in their conscious with their spirit, see me in their actions.

It is not my truth nor is it my lie but,
thousands of me die, under a misunderstood persona.
Misjudged, misread and mislead into believing, it... to be, when it is not. It never was... or was it?

I am not what I am.
What you seem to believe is something that was seen
in the eyes of many and conceived in the same mind.
I was never what you thought of me to be.

Maybe you don't know or acknowledged it too late, but
my fate... Isn't, nor will it ever be controlled by perceptions
I, I, I am way more that what you think of me.
I feel, I breathe, I taste, I cry and I think.

Of times... When I was alone with many, when
I was content with my own space.
I am gentle in my violence and pure in my sinful life.
I am relaxed and stressed, but most of what I am, I do not know best.

All and all, above and beyond.
Over, under, through, inside, outside and past... Everything!
Que sera sera, so the story goes.
On and on and back and forth, the evolutions absolute.

Who will tell tale of young rebels against the system?
Them, who refuse to conform or comply to the ways of authority.
Who will lead the stampede of lost souls, in the middle of their metamorphosis?

Like, what's the point of having a voice if there is no body to follow?
Leaders are chosen inside the millions, no outside, no bystanders.
I chose to follow who knows my struggle, who understands my pain,
who understands my craziness.
I am not fit to lead, but somewhere I the crowd I know "I"... am.

So bring forth the slow sunrise, for a new day has dawned.
Lighting up the horizon, I march on the grassy savanna.
One in many and many in one.
Wreckless nevertheless I stumble but not fall.
My hands will never touch the ground.

Look upon my sex less body, what I am you may never know.
Where I'm from you will never go.
Your lies conceived me.
I birthed, in a cloud as an unknown entity of beauty and hope.

I live by the millions and die by the hundreds. Reincarnation!
I will never die. I will only become harder to handle and too strong to impede.
"I am not what I am".
I adapt with change...
Knowing me will discomfort you, since you are always the same.



©  Nkazimulo Mvemve

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GRADE 12
***

It's Too Easy to Fall Out of Love ~ Nkazimulo Mvemve

Why do you even bother?
Why do you feel anymore?
It's nothing more than a psychological stimulant that tells you to reproduce.
It's not love... It never is.
The unmistakable emotion you feel when you see figure of beauty...
An idol who deserves admiration, adoration & devotion?

It's a different emotion that, eliminates the hearts in your eyes
and makes you blind to what you saw as a lover, a boyfriend/girlfriend.
The frustration between you too and the awkwardness that follows it's funny to look at,
you can't even look at each other anymore,
small glimpse of your eye catching each other and ignoring it.
And it's not too difficult to eliminate this emotion with an "I'm sorry"...

But,
Pride has to much Confidence, Confidence has too much Ego,
Ego has way too much Pride.
It's a never-ending cycle of "me" rather than "you".
"Me" rather than "us",
"Me" rather than "we".
It's never love... It's lust or infatuation or another feeling that attracts you to a person.
That's why you move on, it's why you don't stand still with person until the end.
There is an end it is not of "me" but "us" , "we".

Sleep you'll be fine, let all the worries work themselves in the deep of your subconscious.
Close you eyes and dream of fate...
See the solution embedded in the mind, don't try to find,
but let the mind decided what the possibilities and endless outcomes could be.
Dream, let your imagination take place and let it fill your mind with endless space and limitless time.



© Nkazimulo Mvemve

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GRADE 12
***

The Earth of a Fallen Star ~ Nkazimulo Mvemve

She flies with the enthusiasm and eagerness of exploration.
She is curious as to where she will land, but with excitement
so passionate and pure she is self guided.
Through the darkened empty matter surrounding everything,
she shines and brightens her space like a flash of lightning,
she is happy and content in her freedom.

He wonders on dust, trending on the pathway
where footsteps were non-existent.
He flourishes in his own thoughts, drowning...
trying to think of a life beyond his own,
a life better than the comfort of his black and deserted body...
He is not lost nor found, let it be he...
thrives in his solitary environment, joyous and in felicity he doesn't need anything but himself.

They are oblivious to their existence, fate may it be
or ignorant luck, they were brought closer
and to disaster of their own lives, he does not understand
with his primitive mind, she cannot see, when blinded by the dust.

"Who is that?" and  "Why are they here?"
An image of the falls in between the empty space
and a glimpse of the light brightens his world...
For the first time he can see beyond the choking darkness around him.
She sees flesh eating away at the light...
The dark mass moving without life, without purpose...
Moving into the light but absorbing it.



©  Nkazimulo Mvemve

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GRADE 12
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Just Tell me ~ Mika Datadin

Let me poison your thoughts
and poison your world
I will never be caught
I can plant my pearls

"Where will you be going?"
    "I'm not really sure"
Yet I know there's a place
Lying in your throat

Tell me the truth some day
And I'll cure your mind
Tell me were you've been straying
And you can leave me behind.


© Mika Datadin

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GRADE 12
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You Tried ~ Mika Datadin

you were always My favourite
But so was He

you loved My presence
but He savoured it

you were My energy and fire
but He was the essence

you put the life in Me
but He was my pyre

with you I slept
but with Him, I woke

My love you kept
but He, my soul

My house you made
But He My home

I say all of this
but really there's one difference

you just took My love
but He worked for it.


© Mika Datadin

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GRADE 12
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Even the Sun was Forgotten ~ Mika Datadin

Why didn't the sun miss the earth in winter?
Why did she leave him dead and cold without her?

Did she not know that without her warm heart, he'd shrivel?
Or did the sun not care?
Did she not want to show her big warm smile?
Or was it more than she could bare?

All life would fade and become dull on his surface
Sending the world as we knew it
into the dark abyss

Yet she continues to glow
without her lover
But now in the universe, she was alone
left to suffer.


© Mika Datadin

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GRADE 12
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30 POEMS 30 DAYS

Do you notice a slight chill in the air? Leaves turning? Birds flying north?

This can mean only one thing to the poets of Ladysmith High: April Poetry Writing Month is here!

It has been rather quiet in this somewhere place where few travel, but your editor is making the call to students near and far.... Crack open a new notebook, pick up a pen and challenge yourselves to write down all those poems which have been lazing away the summer in the back of your heads. Perhaps, you will write 3 poems in 30 days or 10 ... A few may reach the ultimate target of 30/30. Whatever your personal goal, know that every poem you write is an achievement, and I will publish all that are submitted to somewhere i have never travelled over the next month or two.

Happy Writing!

K.L. CLARK
Blog Editor

Alumnus Update: Naadir Vorajee

somewhere i have never travelled ...

"Since I haven't submitted any poems this year,' writes Naadir, 'I felt it was necessary to inform you of my recent adventures. I have submitted my masters in the hope that it will be accepted. More importantly at this point I am sure that you and the rest of the English department will be very pleased with the the following news. After 5 years of engineering, I have decided to take a break from the bounds of math and science for a bit...

I am am currently teaching English (you have won) in rural South Korea for the next few months.

I teach grade 3 to 6 which has been a bit of a challenge.

Having taught for a week, I do not understand how teachers have the patience to teach the same content over again even to students that do not want to learn. My appreciation for the staff has quadrupled."


As always, it is wonderful to hear from an Old Boy of LHS. Have fun, Naadir! But don't forget write of your adventures.

Thoughts of Life ~ Mangaliso Xaba

Be Cautious In Everything You Practice Or Preach.
Aspire Diligently In Motion When Constructing Your Future Goals
And Excercise Your Actions Against The Depressions Utilised By Life.
Appropriate Yourself And Always Be Sure
To Invite The Lord Our Father In Every Event You tend to Come Across
Whether it Be In Happiness or In Devastation.
Always Understand that In Life
You Should Always Attempt Every Situation
With Peace, Harmony & Calmness.
Growth And Change Are All Part
Of The Levels In The Mysterious Game Titled "LIFE".
Be Sure To Never Allow A Negative Transition
To Linger In Your Soul, Remain Positive
No Matter What Your Situation Is.
Appreciate What You Possess,
Because One Day You Might Realise
That You Lost The Moon Whilst Counting The Stars.
Learn To Understand The Kind Of Person You Are,
(Strengths, Weaknesses, Morals, Values & Desires).
Because Being Able To Note The Kind Of Person You Are,
Gives You An Opportunity To Conquer All The Challenges Created
By LIFE.




© Mangaliso Xaba

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Matriculant 2018
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