By Mvula ya Nangolo
WINDHOEK – Tuesday – October 1st, 2013 will always be remembered by a group of poetry enthusiasts who were invited to attend an event held that evening at a local bookshop in the capital when Michael ‘Mikey’ Wentworth from South Africa read some poems from his debut collection entitled “A Love Letter for the Epoch,” which was published by Khoi gxam and The Voiceless Majority Press across the Orange river. Mikey describes his first edition as a modest, exploratory foray into publishing, but however, to his surprise, a mere seven months after the release of the book in 2012, it sold out!
He placed the half-filled glass of red wine on a little table next to him, stood up and held his pocket-size book in both hands, and he almost started to read but then stopped suddenly. He gathered his mood to say something and said that he prefers his audience to applaud after he had finished all the selected poems for the event – he had selected 14 for that evening. He explained that when the audience applauds before he had finished reading all the selected poems it kind of disorients him – there he had my total support.
“A Love Letter for the Epoch” is not merely about love but anger, sadness and a combination of factors and we were, according to what I quickly read before the event not to expect similes, metaphors, rhyming couplets, or the usual poetic devices. The metaphors are the poems themselves and the internal rhyme is inherent in the dynamic of the verse according to Keith Adams in the foreword. Due to lack of space, let us read excerpts from “The Grain” which is condensed in prose-like form: ”All of this land was once our home. Fertile and rich, we were sustained. We knew the seasons and understood the elements, we could read the stars. Our children knew their kin and shared in our stories. Without shame or judgment they grew; but now no more,” he explains.
He goes on, “These walls which were once my home were bulldozed again, burying my plight along with my rights; another District 6, another Sophiatown, another Cato Manor; in the name of a gentrified Woodstock, a Slum Act for Kennedy Road and State corruption in Lenasia,” he explodes in this excerpt. In this debut collection by Michael Wentworth, according to Keith Adams, we have a writer with extensive experience in writing for the theatre, and other genres, who has ventured into the exciting and exacting arena of poetry. It is not an easy medium and its context entails many long hours of pure sweat and deep contemplation. Here we have a singularly talented writer who has the courage to paint his words on paper. It is intimate, personal and non-conformist. Michael ‘Mikey’ Wentworth’s family ties are straddled across the Orange River for he is the son of the retired well-known educationist – namely Buddy Wentworth who was a deputy minister of education. Mikey must have been introduced to books at an early age.
Mvula ya Nangolo a writer, a journalist and a published poet of note is also the Special Advisor to the Minister of Information and Communication Technology (MICT).