STORYMOJA

“What a strange thing! to be alive beneath cherry blossoms.” ? Kobayashi Issa

Haiku is a poetic form and a type of poetry from the Japanese culture. Haiku combines form, content, and language in a meaningful, yet compact form.

I’ve always loved words, loved to write, spin words on their axis and see where they orbit, and then watch in wonder. I aspire to use words to tell stories, my stories, the story of humanity, of life and hope, and joy, and on the farthest swing of the pendulum; the end of the cycle of life, despair, hurt, sadness, and in between everything else that makes us who we are.

Allow me to introduce you to the August 2011 poetry exhibition:

1. Blue Sky, Green Grass by Mwikali K
2. Lord my Woman is Talking by Oluoch Madiang’
3. Old Flames by Pascal Mailu
4. Our Neighbour by Namunyu Molenje
5. Revolutionary by Kanjukia Kiyaa
6. Shattered Illusion by Michael Macharia
7. Terminological Inexactitude by Abel Beja Rumba
8. First Time by Tien Moses

When you bring it down to the most basic definition, a sonnet is a poem that follows a specific structure and shows two related but different things to communicate contrastive ideas, emotions, states of mind, beliefs, actions, events…
I, for some very strangely masochistic reason, I have kept some of my school books that cover High School English Literature. Anyway, when I could get past my own embarrassment of looking into my youth, I found this sonnet.

Freedom has been immortalised in prose, song lyrics, spoken poetry, written poetry, even chants in the middle of Tahrir Square and Tianamen Square, on the streets of Manama, Nairobi, Tehran, Johanesburg, even London, Paris and Buenos Aires.

I’d like to share part of a conversation I had with a friend with regards to inspiration… Then check out this month’s poetry.

NB: Join musicians – June GACHUI, Helen MTAWALI, Krax BLAZE and author/performer – Muthoni GARLAND as they stand against ANTI-GENDER VIOLENCE at the Sauti Music Concert. Details Inside.

Sign up, sign in, haiku up, and win! @ The Storymoja Hay Festival

Poetry is the most artistic and form of creative writing. You can write in the abstract or the concrete. Images can be vague or subtle, brilliant or dull. Write in form, using patterns, or write freely,….