On His Skin ~ Mika Datadin

Today we see history repeat itself

I found for a long while that

I had no urge to write poems.

I can't even remember

my last story, or when it was written



However, today I find it necessary to

Pick up the pen once again.



No one really discouraged me from writing

No one really knew, and

Those that did,

None of them really cared.



However, today I find it necessary to

Pick up the pen once again.



My pen is made of magic in its steel

And tales in its ink.

Stories told time and time again

Yet unparalleled and fresh with each drop.



This is why today I find it necessary to

Pick up the pen once again.



I've had no real companion

Besides my sterling silver partner

It's kept me from my tears,

And shielded me from the

Screams of my pressure.



I may decide last minute not

To write, to be strong,

But my sadness is stronger lately,

So I wish to see my magic pen

Of silver ink leave red

Marks on its canvas tonight.

This evening

Nobody can stop me from

Picking up my pen once again.




©  Mika Datadin

***
Grade 11
***

Mountain ~ Alex Nyathi

I am a mountain
A crisp winter's night
June
I am criticized for being myself, lonesome
Reaching heights one can only dream of
Simply to escape the concrete jungle chaos
I am natural evolution

Looking down on my problems, the ones who disagree
Like a snow flake they fall, drifting into the darkness
I have no need for the brief highs and devastating lows of drugs
Or the endless but seemingly dissatisfying celebration of the nights

Because the only way to forever be high is to reach the summit
I have my dreams, my 'once upon a times'
I am shielded by the same ambitions I am criticized for
I am a mountain


©  Alex Nyathi

***
Grade 9
***

Pain ~ Uwais Osman

I am a gasp of pain
A midwinter's close of day
An entity bound by a single chain
August;
I am trepidus
Ascension of astral ashes with no assent
Nor a need to ascertain
I am a gasp of pain
I am a heave of suffering

I have forsaken conflict
Walked away from it yet still invict
Inverted insults into intriguing intuition
I have no need of control or restraint
With my withered wrath and wretched rage
I have my calm conceptions
And napalm perceptions
I am shielded by the mind's terrain
I am a gasp of pain


©  Uwais Osman

***
Grade 9
***

Revival ~ Zuhairraa Sardiwalla

I am revival
Autumn
In the park
February
I am rebirth
"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness
close bosom friend of the maturing son"*
I am revival

I have built gardens
Millions of seeds lie in moist soil
Gardens that no man may destroy
I have no need of the past because
From the ashes come nothing
I have my art and clay
I am shielded by my self worth
I am revival


© Zuhairaa Sardiwalla

***
Grade 9
***

*John Keats

I Am Me ~ Uwais Coetzee

I am who I am
My thoughts flow like the River Nile
Through the vast maze of my mind
The magical abyss that I is my soul
As deep as the oceans that gill up our world
Are my thoughts,
My feelings,
My innermost feelings,
Writing the eternal test of life
Without knowing what to study
Each day is a challenge,
A new puzzle,
In this eternal labyrinth
Not knowing the end from the start,
Left from right
Life has made me who I am
The challenges have shaped me,
Moulded me into myself
Each day brought a key to be opened
Without giving me the key,
They made me who I am,
I am me.


©  Uwais Coetzee


***
Grade 10
***

Poetry ~ Ntando Mazibuko

Simple words
expressing intense emotions -
without poetry
my anger, pain and joy
would be left unspoken.

A teardrop in my eye
a thousand birds in the sky -
through poetry you are allowed to cry.
Let the poem speak.
Let the paper hear you weep.



© Ntando Mazibuko


***
Grade 10
***