ONE of the things that make the world go round and is shared across the globe is love and romance.
And poets seem to have an idea of feelings – dark, white, deep and shallow. Poets can describe love and make it tangible.
Namibia’s celebrated poet Mvula ya Nangolo is known for his poems that talk about life in exile and the home far away beyond the horizons.
He has also written so much about that home so distinct because of the desert and the people so blessed with courage and resilience.
Now a collection of all his works published this year, ‘Watering the Beloved Desert’ shapes another angle to Ya Nangolo’s yearnings – love.
Yes, love is what takes over when the fight for freedom is done with. It is love that calms nerves when all around us falls quiet. It is love that binds people together.
And for Ya Nangolo, such love is for the country. It is for the land. The past that still brings joyful memories and painful thoughts.
‘Tears from My Heart’ catches my heart. ‘The Shelter’ is replete with longing. The feeling that keeps love young. The journey to where one wants to be.
Ya Nangolo’s love as depicted in most of his poems is for the good of this world. It starts with maternal love. That longing for human touch.
Every time one reads love poems, it is like the first time. Something so close to making love to the one you have chosen – a soulmate.
‘From Exile’ must be read in a girlish voice. Imagine out there in the bushes. Eyes closed and face relaxed.
“I’ve not been touched so tenderly/ I’ve been searched by bullets/ Going through my camouflage/ And leaving my heart so fresh/ I wish to feel again how life feels.”
There are small things people do when in love. Small but big in meaning. Like the accidental brush of hands. Like the bumping into each other. And the resultant slivers of joy that pierce through the heart. Like the rush of adrenalin.
Such small moments can be frozen in the soul for eternity. So does a poem pregnant with meaning captured in so few words.
In just four lines, Ya Nangolo captures, freezes and stores a memory derived from a glass as a source. It’s about taking risks. Daring fate to claim what you desire.
‘Just a Glass…’ is not just a glass. It’s a memory. A moment in eternity. A joy to relive.
“Would you knowingly sip from a glass/ Thoughtfully poured for another lass/ Enjoy its especially chilled sweetness/ Firstly meant for someone else’s lips?”
Sad that what most people remember in relationships are such moments as captured in very few words yet loaded with feeling.
The beauty of poetry is that it latches on such incidents. Makes them big. And gives meaning.
But when everything else has been said and done, emotions need to be solidified. Words have to be put into action. The invitation comes then.
Ya Nangolo writes: “May I find shelter in your warm kind heart/ Should have told you long ago from the start/ As waves of love waltzed surely ashore/ Answering that inviting look in our eyes/ Now please come into my ever-open arms.”
The expectations. The invitation. The freedom of love. The surrendering.
He finishes: “… Please stay within my strong ever-assuring arms.” Protecting. Caring. Ring-fencing.
This could be Namibia. The rolling open plains. Giving room to development. And the meandering hills embracing towns and villages. Keeping the people sheltered from the cold and offering shade in summer.
Most people have a place reserved for those who will never come back. Such spaces are reserved even when we know those who are supposed to occupy them are not returning.
Still we leave the doors to our hearts open. We peer out the windows of lives, expecting, ready to welcome those who will never return.
“Keep a blank page for my poem/…Remember the big blank page for my poem/ About the village beauty who stole my heart.”
And now whose heart has never been stolen? Like they say don’t we fall in love once?
Maybe you have read Ya Nangolo’s poetry before and think all he writes about is the struggle, read again with romance in your mind.
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