In search of wonder: Poet shares her thoughts

HAVE you ever wondered how to maintain a stronger connection with a younger, more bright-eyed version of yourself and live more adventurously?

If so, you are not alone. Poets have been asking this question for centuries and recorded the results of their research in magnificent poems of frustration and wonder.

Also read: Find your best words: AVBOB poetry competition entries open in August

Olwethu Mxoli is a poet and school teacher from the Eastern Cape who has thought deeply about the losses and gains associated with growing up. Her poems, which have been published in several anthologies produced by Ecca Poets, explore what it means to long for wholeness and sanity when they seem to be absent.

This month, she shared a particularly fine poem with the AVBOB Poetry Project, first published in What It Is (Ecca, 2020). In it, she remembers a time when magic and wonder felt easily accessible to her.

Read the poem and notice how it slowly builds tension as it draws us into its world.

Unlearning Magic

The sky is tinged orange

with the final kiss of the sun

and we sit

waiting

for the quiet cover of night.

The dog long accustomed to my still ways

slows her tail to my heartbeat

and does not ask questions.

Above us a small airplane’s

tired motor splinters the silence

but I am not disturbed.

I am filled with the need to wish

for something.

Anything.

Just like I used to

slapping my mouth at the sky

screaming out every desire

foolishly hoping.

I don’t remember when I stopped believing

that skies held miraculous things.

It was a noiseless unlearning of magic.

In the next few days, write a poem in which you describe yourself rediscovering magic and wonder in the middle of an ordinary day.

The annual AVBOB Poetry Competition opens for submissions on August 1. Visit www.avbobpoetry.co.za today and familiarise yourself with the competition rules.

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