My fish poem...
                                                    

Wanjira

Colourful and elegant

Your movements like sunrays

Your bright colours shining 
through dreary dark waters

Your curvy, lithe body making
graceful movements

So confidently curious and content

So full of life, is it because 
you carry life in your belly?

Or are you very aware of the important 
place you occupy in the planet, in

life? The power you hold?

Move on live on and enjoy your 
special place

You belong you are powerful

The Green Leaves

Kazanka

Green, Green, Green gives life,
Green is blossoming,
Green is Life,
Green is everything.

Come see the Life in Green,
Come and Live with Green,
Come find Life in Green,
Yes Green is the fountain of Life.

Come understand life with Green,
Give life some meaning with Green,
Life is all that it is with Green,
Because without Green there is no life.

Is this stem a long, lonely journey
Or a channeling of our thoughts, ideas
That burst from a point
Of coherence?

Butterfly

Anne

The interesting part of my object is that it starts from

the larva to a caterpillar and to a butterfly.

Butterflies are not like other insects, which will

have different breed but it colors remains the same

e.g. bees. Butterflies have variety of breeds and

variety of colours. And in my case it’s a white

butterfly with black dots. Its a very cool and

peacefully insect. A butterfly can fly higher;

anywhere in the country can sit on anybody

peacefully without any harm. It’s a friendly

insect to all the creatures in the world.

It’s an insect once its disturbed where it

was it will always fly higher from the level

where it was. It’s in its own world it’s a

beautiful thing, a very neat insect its friendly to

all the animals and nature. It’s not a pest.

Oh butterfly look at you

Grace Bwalya

Beautiful, cool, patient, pretty, flying higher in the air,
I wish I could fly like you butterfly
You are so friendly to every creature,
You mingle with every creature
You are harmless
I want to be flying high like you butterfly
Ever happy with life
Interacting with every creature
Friendly to every creature
You love every creature
Butterfly you are just a beautiful thing
Oh butterfly Oh butterfly

A seedbud
Ineke


in the form of a cone with a five pointed
 star on its top; evoking images of feminine 
creativity, masculine holding and healing.

Only when the women of Africa

Bring their creativity
In uniqueness together

Will the chalice and the blade
Come to healing and wholeness

And will the continent
Dark-brown-pale
Become a light unto itself

white lily

Leila

(will try to get a photo of one, mine faltered,

they last max. one day)

You are white, white with yellow lickings
White with a purple heart
I have hurt you bringing you to me
Hurt you being mesmerized by you
Are your black stripes a notion of a dark presence?
Amidst your graceful glory?
Please recover from my inflicted wounds
Let your feathery strivings engulf me, engulf me upwards
To the beauty of your perfection

Lily, glorious Lily of my soul.

Nature genereuse pour  qui vient
du Sahel balaye en permanence
par l'harmattan. 

Pays du voyageur emerveille
par le relief accidente de Durban
qui donne charme et reverie
a celui qui sait ecouter et voir l'invisible
qui surgit de nulle part.

Generous nature for those who come

permanently from Sahel balaye.

Country of a traveler amazed by Durban nature

which inspires charm and dreaming.
For the one who knows to listen, and to see the

invisible which comes out from nowhere. 

The Bottle Seal

Susan Bakesha

It is used to tighten bottle lids of different liquid

products including water, fruit juice, and liquid soap

among others.  The bottle seal protects the liquid inside the

bottle from leakage incase the lid is not tight enough.

  It is also used to protect the product from

contamination, forgery and duplication.

You are never recognized as important
You seem so small compared to the rest
You come last in the production chain
You are immediately destroyed after

offering your services
You are thrown away, trodden upon by

those that you fight to protect

It is all about ignorance

But let us think again
Without you, the process is incomplete
Without you, they are not recognized
Without you, their works are rejected
Without you, their health is in danger
Without you, their faith is useless
Without you, life is nothing but anxiety

So, I choose to celebrate you
For you are the seal to our lives.

The Untapped Potential

The object is a sprinkler that is no longer serving

its purpose and has been thrown away

Sally

 Before I was birthed I was an idea, a thought process.
An idea born of knowledge and potential
Through creativity and focus I was put together
And out of me emerged a course and a purpose that had to be fulfilled.

The achievement of my end was a reality
When bits of me were put together to the final product.
I diligently served the purpose for which I was created
And derived satisfaction from the knowledge of it.

Time saw me slowly depreciate and loose my value
I lost the purpose for which I was created
And was rejected and termed as worthless

So here am I, in need of recognition
And hope is what keeps me going.
That the potential in someone will notice and realize
The untapped potential
And a new process will begin leading to a new birth

Tea Bag

Kiss

The teabag was decayed, dry, turning to soil and

lodged in the green grass. It’s life had begun when

the tea plant was planted, it’s leaves picked and then

processed in a factory, shelved in the shop it had

been picked at random used to brew tea and now,

there it was in the green grass discarded

TEA BAG

THE PERSON
Used teabags what use have we of you? Dry and rot,

turn to dust and disappear for you are of no use.

TEA BAG

Oh you who use me, know you not that my destiny has always been beyond you? My decay after the rain is the source of the earth’s life that you enjoy everyday.

Fare well and live on, a new life for me has now begun.

Amina

My friend, what this sudden meeting,
The partner of my soul, why this long absence,
How many times you did not honor the date!
Yet today here we meet!
Without reproach, without anger,
I met you as if we have never been separated before,
You, like I have always imagined you,
You light of spirit and of steps,
Beautiful in my eyes,
You break all patterns,
You attract every one seeing you or approaching you,
With your modesty, sweetness and intelligence.

Life

Listen most often to things than to human beings
Life is beautiful, it is magnificent
Listen most often to things than to human beings
Life is full of happiness, joys and hopes,
Listen also to human beings, there is a shiver, this sound
Remember that something will happen,
It is the wind which in our heart that will transform the world

This wind will shake the world,
One day, these things will water our minds
These things will change the life and together,
We will thank God,
The world is ours,
Hope, hope, hope.
                       

La vie

Ecoute le plus souvent les choses que les etres,
La vie est belle , elle est magnifique,
Ecoute le plus souvent les choses que les etres,
La vie est faite de bonheur, de joies ,d ‘esperances,
Ecoute aussi les etres,il ya un frémissement, ce bruit
Rappelle que quelque chose va se passer,
C est le vent qui est dans notre Coeur qui va transformer le monde,

Ce vent va faire bouger le monde,
Un jour, ces choses  arroseront nos esprits,
Ces choses modifieront la vie et ensemble,
Nous dirons merci a dieu,
Le monde est a nous,
Espoir, espoir,espoir  !

Ibou
A qui la faute ?

Jeune homme, force de lance de ton pays
Jeune homme, fleur d’aujourd’hui, espoir de demain

Jeune homme, symbole de

vie, symbole de joie

Jeune homme, acteur actif du développement futur de ton pays
Toi marchant, exerçant et donnant l’impression d’aller dans l’impasse
Toi qui désemparé dans une nature à la fois douce et rude
A qui la faute ?
A la nature ? Oui serait-on tenté de dire
A l’Homme ? Facilement, on peut l’accuser
A tes parents ? C’est très facile de l’affirmer
A ton pays ? La critique semble facile, mais l’art difficile
A toi ? Tu diras que tu n’en es qu’une simple victime
Alors à qui la faute ?

Who is to blame?
Young man, power of your country

Young man, flower of today, hope of tomorrow

Young man, symbol of life, symbol of joy,
Young man, active actor of your country’s future development
You walking and giving the impression to walk into the impasse
You are lost in a nature both kind and rude

Who is to blame?

Nature, yes, one would tend to say
Man, easily, one can accuse him

Your parents, criticism seems to be easy, but art is difficult

So who is to blame?

Elise
A plant which carries three personalities, and yet

has its own distinctive personality!! 

A shrub, with the red looking like petals

resembles two other plants in a very different way) 
The stem has green as a base with small red hairy on

the stem. The green leaves have red veins, which

probably manufacture the red petals, but its only

the few leaves at the top which turn red and the

rest remain greenish with red veins. The back side

of the green  leaves, is  pale green, contrasted

with the red veins, while the back of the  red leaves is 

pale red. The leaf is connected to the stem by a

small hairy  bud. Probably the location of seeds.

What strikes me from the beginning is that this

plant resembles two different plants in my own garden.

First, there is a shrub with similar leaves except for

the red veins, but does not end up with red petals,

and another one with different leaves and stem

but has similar red petals. This is a puzzle to me.

Initially I thought this is genetically modified,

but a close examination, and by instincts, it

does seem to be a natural plant.

 (In our human life, we probably carry similar

personalities and yet we hold our own identity) 

The green in my cultural context stands for

peace, and red for blood, sometimes, violence.

And yet, blood is the source of our being, the life . 

And yet, the plant stands so peaceful that an association

with violence does not exist. The red and the red

veins resembles our human veins with blood feeding

into our bodies. But the paradox is, the scientific

process of manufacturing food in plants

( from my traditional biology knowledge)

results from photosynthesis which works

with the sun. This is yet another puzzle to me. 

Poem:
You puzzle me the way you carry three personalities,
The red leaves with red veins,
The green leaves with red veins,
Like red rose without the cent of a rose,
Like my garden shrub without the red leaves,
Like the garden shrub except for the red leaves.
You puzzle me as you symbolize peace,
You puzzle me the way you symbolize life,
You puzzle me because you have your own identity.

Ruth

My Object – The Ant

A small, but ever-busy creature on earth. It has a shining body whatever its shed is, whether brown or black. It crawls on soil and dusty ground. You wonder how it then keeps itself shining given the environment it stays, work and stay.

Always moving with speed from one direction to another. It is very tiny in built and you wonder how it survives, where the food it eats goes and how it breathes and so on. Everything about its survival is amazing; it leaves you wondering with its tiny body, which looks like just a string that joins the head and the other end. It is amazing how an ant plays its part in gathering food; it works with its team members to create a habitat and carrying food from wherever to its destination. In creating a habitat it leaves a very visible mark in form of a heap of soil with a hole usually in the middle.  The heap of soil is usually visible because the soil will be coming from underground and will be different from the soil on the surface.

It is a creature that crawls and works in danger. There is danger of it being stepped on by living creatures and moving objects like cars, but it does its daily activities as if there is no danger. You only find out that it knows that there is danger when you touch it, it moves with speed such that you can quickly loose track of it especially when you find it among its fellows. Fun how it appears dead when you put it between your hands, only to see or feel it moving again as if it wants to run away. If you keep it for long between your hands, you feel it moving its legs and if you loosen up it will start escaping.
 

Poem

Ant Ant! What an amazing creature you are
Shining, like you have never been near dust
Yet on dusty soil you crawl

You are full of life
Ever busy with your life
You are so small
But what you carry is amazing
It is amazing how you carry twenty time your weight

Ant! You are amazing creature
Very vulnerable to all living creatures and moving objects
There is the danger of being trodden by human beings as you crawl
But still you carry on with your busy life
As if there is no danger

Ant! I envy your smartness, and ever-shining look
Your energy and concentration in what you do is my source of inspiration.
To do what I have to do against all odds

Precious