Rage stage page: The Polokwane Literary Fair

• Published in: New coin South African poetry 2013-12, Vol.49 (2), p.122
• Main Author: Berold, Robert
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Book publishing; Fairs and festivals; Festivals; Literary festivals
• ISSN: 0028-4459

Sometimes, Gudani concluded, the sun and moon meet, in an eclipse. Because it is a rare meeting and they want to be private, they draw a dark blanket around them [sniggers and snorts from the children]. The common problems of inexperienced poets became evident: - taking some time for the real issue of the poem to appear [our advice: cut the early meandering, start from the point where the poem starts to 'bite'] - forcing a conclusion to the poem [don't] - preaching to the reader [don't] - explaining too much [don't] - making the title either too obscure or too obvious - rhyming without enough skill to do so [the hip-hoppers are more aware of what is needed, but the greetings-card-influenced poets are incorrigible to the point where their forced rhymes are horrigible] - the perennial issue - don't expect your unmediated personal expression to be a poem or do the work of a poem [it can't] - the perennial missed connection, reading - read... read ... so much good poetry to be found on the net, if you can learn to cut through the thickets of bad poetry. Even more than writing workshops, poets need reading workshops, with each one coming out with a reading list tailor-made to his or her style or voice. Dashen Naicker did a fast literate set in hiphop/slam style, with a wide emotional range, from forlorn but witty love poems ['not even Pythagoras could get over his x'] to scathing social commentary.