Busi Mhlongo is one of the most powerful women I have met. She was a giant on stage. In 2000, very early in my poetry writing career, I was lucky enough to be asked to contribute a poem her internationally acclaimed album Urbanzulu.
 The Track itself is epic and seemed to call for and epic poem - on that was declamatory and rousing.

  




Poem by Zena Edwards©  
There are problems in every home: Oh my people!
Family! 
Family was the core of the heart's security and sense of belonging. 

Can you now look to your neighbour for help 
When the family pillar begins to chip and crumble? No! 
They too wear a mask of strained false contentment 
But cry for solutions to family troubles. 

tweet poems - #temptation

The suck the pull the lure the open door
ajar enuff 4 muffled sound & dim lite 2 spill.
The gaping need 2 kno must b fulfilled
#temptation


Zena Edwards© 2012 

tweet poems - #unsolvedmurder

He listens 2 th grass grow, 
bugs legs tangle in their blades, 
worms munch @ decibels. 
He waits 4 a quiet tht wont eva come
#unsolvedmurder

Zena Edwards© 2012 
 

Estar - The Star of Creativity Pts 1, 2 & 3

I was commissioned to write a piece in 3 parts about creativity and its holistic value in the community for the Arts and cultural building Podium Mozeik in the Netherlands for their 5th birthday. http://www.podiummozaiek.nl/

Haytham Safia - U’d
Peter Prommel - Percussion

haiku yellow

You Joy


face ache, inner glow
thermostat set to 'roasting'
next joke, reload, go!

haiku blue

Laden


Just too much, they said.
No-one should have that much, true?
Sadness chooses who.

The Dead Line - By Zena Edwards

The piece is about a frustrated artists who is stuck in a loop of dead end temp jobs and her infuriating current boss who haunts her every waking and sleeping hour…

Click to find enlarge. Find the smiley face...

Written and performed by Zena Edwards©

Commissioned by James Robinson for BBC Radio 4.

The Revolving Anger

A monolgue poem...

the them, them - us,
these them and us conversations
"The problem", they diplomatically say,
"is multi-layered, full of social complexities"
With the air of lofty privilege economic freedom buys
 atop a pedestal of superiority
so let's level the playing field, pretend we are all equal,
to unpick the "multi-layered" perplexity

observe the symptom of a situation:
foot, shoe, walk
Could experience otherness, without being crippled
Could they walk their talk? Are their toes
to precious to dip in the waves of foreign,
would they become a slaves
if they made such a human connection?
(britain never never shall be -
With 1point plus trillion national debt)

Observe the psychology of (those you've) 

oppressed, the Pathology of privilege
speeding humanity to the edge
and 'those people' you give nothing to believe in
aren't blind to the example you set
of war mongering and thieving

callous, you build a society made to suit you’re measure
Stitch up the logic, the fix, the equation of pressure
- Lies x corruption x 'every breath is day light robbery'
string up Robin, reward the sheriff
let them riot x looting squared for a media frenzy