A Fierce Green Place

A poem is a power

for Rethabile Masilo

A poem is a power. Invoke it and run the devil. Watch it good . . .
See traces of the first word on it still. Numinous, it will eclipse the
moon, call up mists, halt the sun in high heaven. Listen . . . Hear it
tell sounds we make with our mouth when we propose,with our
hip when we dispose. So use a poem loud for laughter, as a sigh after
ecstasy, time and again for praise. Set it like balm between you and
bad mind with your neighbour. Cause it to gather all who take a knee
for justice, all who genuflect in prayer, all who bow to murder. Blood
bled to born, bloodshed to die.All this in a poem is not too great a
weight. 

Reviews of A Fierce Green Place

Vladimir Lucien, “An Eden with Teeth”, Journal of West Indian Literature, vol. 31, no. 2, April 2023, pp. 163–167. Available at Journal of West Indian Literature.