Selected Poems by Dzekashu Macviban Charles

Existence

We fought back, with light, the endless night
You imposed on our existence
As the day had left the day, never to return
It seemed—
Had it all ended there
In that primeval darkness of genesis?
You tailed us— through time and space, alas! —
Remember Alexandria, and the dung-heap of lies
Which, like crumbs, you left behind. 

Brother, your embrace is full of thorns
Which try to asphyxiate our age-old exuberance
To no avail, though; for everyone who fell
Two rose— stronger.
 
The griot-led population fears not 
The forest of a thousand daemons
For we are in harmony with nature
And
In your frustration, we beheld 
Your milk-white pitch-black face of decadent beauty
In its free-fall.

Troubled Dawn

The sound of thunder is
Deafening, defying and imposing
It speaks, stern- faced, to those who are.
Overthrown bounds fuel green light
On pitch black night, colored by sparks
Smoke—dark smoke
Testifying tumult on macadam

And with symbolic validity,
Darkness of heart.
Troubled  dawn, O petal crush
Buried in the rain!
The hands that toy, toy on.
See how they try to hide an elephant.
In a market.

Down to dust? Hydra birth of will, as
Jerusalem’s song soared
In defiance of the stiff air.
Tensed silence
Broken by humiliating brutality
What a waste, such a show of force.
Puppet show, it turns, as
All ends with an embrace of plenty.

Dzekashu  Macviban Charles was born in 1985 in Yaounde, Cameroon and is an undergraduate student in the University of Buea, Cameroon, reading Bilingual letters. He writes poetry and criticism.

Comments

[KFW]

Dzekashu is the new word order!

[Wirndzerem G.B]

I can't but marvel at this poetic genius: u don't need to double-read to know that Dzekashu is a diamond in the factory of polish, the maturing product, if he keeps & improves this same fire, i bet u, will offer us poetic tail to wag in the future. Just re-read this originality:

"O petal crush
Buried in the rain!
The hands that toy, toy on.
See how they try to hide an elephant.
In a market."

Then hear him again, beautifully:

"We fought back, with light, the endless night
You imposed on our existence
As the day had left the day, never to return
It seemed—
Had it all ended there
In that primeval darkness of genesis?"

He is my type of poet! I confess. Thx for bringing him on!
In "troubled dawn", burning tyres on macadam, show of force, stiff air, thunder, smoke etc all remind me of restive 2008 february & its riotous season, as i followed minute by minute on the private TV stations! That eulogized, my two cents to better what i ve just read, shld be the eschewing of banalities like "pitch black" repetition in the two poems, his talent has more original alternatives. He ends the last poem with a handsome but esoteric "All ends with an embrace of plenty" and i wished i could could connect it with the rest of the poem, proximately or approximately, without tedious argumentation. I will also want to read what his non-indictive poetry sounds like.

[Nfor Edwin N.]

Macviban is an inspiration. Saying too much may not praise his art the right way so I stop at that.