Country: South Africa
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcTtx5eTPwo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKAleAQb4IU
The work of Paarl born poet and publicist, Loftus Marais is visual and ironic, rebelling against a traditional Afrikaans poetry, while also acknowledging the handed-down Afrikaans belief in the poet as craftsman, in the importance of formal, structural and musical elements. This makes his poetry a complex modulation of a voice that is both lyrical and bitter, sombre and comical, nostalgic and ultra-contemporary. After being published in several anthologies, his debut collection of poems, Staan in die algemeen nader aan vensters, was published to high acclaim.
o broers en susters, kom dien die here in die stad se nuwe katedrale. (extract)
lees in tale die graffiti “mene mene tekel ufarsin” wat wys
in neon op die gewyde grys van reën-gedoopte, wind-geslypte stutpilare.
luister na die haweloses se nagkorale wat eggo-eggo só bó in die hoeke
waar daar ’n paar katkarkasse lê, en sê hier jou prewelgebede
benede die kosmiese gesis van karre wat met klank die terrein verwelf.
voel die koel skadus van die stad wat hier in beuk na beuk
stilte bied, en verskoon die reuk van uriene, ’n onvoorsiene gevolg
van die oopgooi van die deure vir al wat heil kom soek.