July 2025 Editor's Choice: "Of Poetry and Life's Rhythms"

Like day and night

Poetry has its bright and dim moments

The oscillating pendulum of consciousness

Carries humanity's tears and joy

When we see the bright faces of laughter

We are filled with joy

Our life is temporarily replenished with hope

Our spirit takes a break to celebrate

This is a moment of reconciliation

Our heart and mind speak the same language

And the vessel of life flows with the sacred energy

Poetry is the beautiful flower that emerges from the

bubbling pot of the spirit

This is the open canvas of our artistic expression

The words we speak are turned into jewels

Pregnant with the mist of mystery

Poems are the Poet's bliss and ecstasy

Bringing a sense of divinity to our path of life.

But

Like the inevitable sunset,

Poetry has its moments of darkness

When the poetic spirit is lifted from the skies of our lives

The open firmament of the unknown swallows

the remaining seeds of light

And nothing hovers inside our hearts

Except the depth of darkness

Here, we are submerged in our human nature

Absorbed to our fears and pains

We feel neither the pulse of the poetic spirit

Nor the divine breath

Like abandoned children

We are left to fend for ourselves

Foraging inside the wilderness of logic

We find ourselves face to face with the solidified reality

The harsh voice of uncertainty and the loud sound of

hopelessness

These are the garments in the wardrobe of human nature

We put on them without flinching,

Their pungent smell does not bother us

It's the rhythmic nature of our physical reality

We are once again buried inside the casket of time and space

With no sense of our divinity

We fall asleep inside our new found home

Until the bright rays of hope emerge from the brink of death

That's when we gather the silence

And embrace the return of our poetic nature

The Poet in us rises again

To spread the message of joy and sorrow

To fill the void in our hearts

And to take us beyond our material needs, wants and desires

Into the dimensionless realm of possibilities.

© KENNETH MASWABI

Botswana