Thursday 14 February 2013

Release the Passion Day - 14th Feb

Love is abound.
For some, its veiled.
For others, it dances between their eye contact.

Our hearts see it, even when no-one is looking
Flirting with possibility, winking at a connection
Proposing a moment of shy, face aching smiles,
Hot flashes, engulfing your blood
Reminding you
You
      Are
            Alive.


- Zena Edwards©

Thursday 10 January 2013

Solutions To Insomnia 1

the app i downloaded for my ipad
is all about the sounds of nature

birds 
in copper, 
forest and mantis green
mountain ranges haggle
with my night rustling thoughts
that bartered and made a pact with insomnia

put her to sleep and let her have the moment
just moment of unbroken peace

So the cyber sparrows chirrup
and the hollow wind is
a quieter white noise
the app is effective in drowning the deficit
of peaceful open air camping
which is the real dream

Zena Edwards©

Wait. Take a Moment

Attaching yourself to people
who cannot love you
is not a madness, a sickness
or stupidity

it is being unaware
of your own need for compassion
for the pain that rings about your ears
that you swat away, falcon-eyed on
your new prey
the one you chose to love, 
mistaken

the impasse is blue rubble
you sprain your ankle
graze you knee
clambering over with
a plea of "wait for me, I'm here, I'm coming!"

but they are long gone
they have grief like plugs
of grey in their ears
from another hurt
one you weren't around to see

best thing you can do is turn back
at least sit down and take a rest
regroup, reconsider
discern if the near broken leg and blood loss
is worth it

...or if
some people just don't do love

Zena Edwards©

Falling in the Key of B flat Minor

we get older
it is further to fall
the ground comes up in slow motion
icing on a hard knock cake

but we are practiced now
should know how to fall
judo champions pride themselves on slapping the mat
with a free hand, break the fall, fighting back
getting up to get a grip and throw the challenge to the ground -
"Who is master/mistress of this life?!"
trusting the inner
in balance with the outer
tuned to the key of b flat minor
#weknowmorethankwethink


Zena Edwards©

"An expansive key, B flat minor is a luscious,
sensual key, and one in which an unhurried and flowing depth of
emotion as well as spirit can be found. Its serene beauty is highly
refined. B flat minor has a broad and even brawny aspect about it that
leads it substance and strength…" 

 
Source: The meaning of Key (in music) 

Choosing Baby's Middle Name

and there it was

right there in your smile

it was time for halternecks

a your moist pink toothless 
shiney new as dew a kissed dawn
you hold my gaze, you drink me in

my eyes and soul brims
from the womb contraction you bring
with this one thing, this act from instinct
from a glorious season within

right there

warm and unadulterated 

"Summer."

Zena Edwards©

Thursday 19 July 2012

MY LIFE IN GIGS AND PROJECTS

I am a very active artist who loves her job. 
I lick my fingers and swoon after dipping them into a variety of pies. For more information about what I do aside from the musings on this blog, take a look at my other ventures. for life as an artist in this climate is varied and more multifaceted than even I could imagine. Keep up to up to date at

Wednesday 13 June 2012

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. 

Thursday 24 May 2012

Tweet Poem - #smug

So what u want with me now? I ask Insomnia.
Nuffin. Jus to watch u twitch & fidget, 
Muck about on the internet & call it "research." 


Written by Zena Edwards©

The Perpetual Winter

Where do I begin?
Where do I place the pin
As the starting point to express
This state of paralysis?
Ice crystals wedged between
each each frightened vertebrae
I am inflexible. Today.

They marched for Trayvon.
We marched for Smiley.
The wind blew around our ears
Outside the yard.

They marched for Amina
We marched for Cherry
The water froze under
Our feet. We wore grippers.

Coughed up an ocean of Middle Passage sea salt
to melt the season
But the wind blew colder
So the thaw needed to be bolder
So we read Huey P, Malcom X, Hurston, Stokley
Whose hot words burst the river bank

Then the winter closed ranks
Horizontal sleet cuts
Marking trees across new backs
In the bellies of police vans
And out on the open road
The new frontier, the explicit cold


Written by Zena Edwards©

Saturday 28 April 2012

Tweet Poems - # PeaceIn OurTime

Wen sanity weeps 
like a slick succession of roaches 
slippin thru a rip in humanitys skin, 
Great Minds coagulate round the wound of unreason

2 blot the bleeding with Diplomacy 
b4 She was kidnapped & gagged 
& could use both hands 2 stem the flow,
b4 politics tied 1 behind her back

& told her 2 row 2 the grassy bank of freedom 
knowing her boat wud only go in circles,
barnacles of conflict crusting its hull.

As the ripples distort the mirror
broken refractions of light
fall like pieces of a confused puzzle.

Come the Great Minds 2 still the water  

to mend the vista of magic
to exhale words in the order of reparation
to shepherd the chaos to calm
to halt the tumult 4 a moment's respite
to ensure we do not fear the well of silences to come
#peaceinourtime


Saturday 17 March 2012

tweet poems - #goodquestion

There's room. Snuggle up, sed imagination. 
They sed this womb can hold more than Life. 
What's more than Life? asked the child. 
#Goodquestion

Monday 5 March 2012

tweet poems - #OutofRehab

It promised 2b spectacular! 
All fireworks, tinsel 
Bright coloured streamers
Each nervy step on2 the stage: 
an everyday


Zena Edwards© March 2012