Kobus Moolman

Moolman was born in 1964. He currently teaches creative writing in the Department of English at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban. He was the editor of the literary journal, Fidelities, from 1995 until 2007.

Moolman has published four collections of poetry: Time like Stone (UKZN Press, 2000), 5 Poetry (Botsotso Publishers, 2001) with four other South African poets, Feet of the Sky (Brevitas Press, 2003) and Separating the Seas (UKZN Press, 2007). In 2003 Moolman was a finalist in the BBC African Performance radio drama competition. His play, Full Circle, was awarded the Jury Prize at the 2004 Performing Arts Network of South Africa Festival of New Writing. In 2007 he was awarded joint first prize in the PANSA Festival for his new play, Stone Angel. This is the second time he has won this major South African award for theatre writing. In 2008 he produced an illustrated, limited edition collection of prose poems entitled Anatomy. This collection was later published in the Journal of Disability Studies (Ohio State University).

Three Trees

 
Three ghosts of trees
swim on a hillside
in the mist.
 
Left behind, the light 
of the full moon
shines a faint trail –
 
Loud, the river repeats
a stencil of waves
across the black air –
           
Three ghosts of trees wait
for hanging three
undying messages upon.

Imfolozi Reserve                                                                   
 
 
Crooked thorn tree
overlooking a green valley
 
 
Purple distance
ploughing up clods of cloud
 
 
Sky of white glass
sharpening sun’s fingers
 
 
Black hawk
twisting off a thermal.

The Day I Heard
(for Gabi Nkosi:  4 Feb 1974 – 26 May 2008)
 
 
Gun-grey day.
 
A big brown horse
bent at a lake.
 
The hills in a haze.
 
Slow horse surrounded
by the rowing of water.
 
Metal-black trees.
 
A cock with
a hoarse voice crowing.
 
Sky with a hole.
 
The light leaking out
all the way from beyond.

Suicide Note                                                                                                  
(after shooting his girlfriend three times in the head)
 
 
Just so you will learn
 
            A lesson
 
So you will never do it again
 
            Because
 
In order to be a man
 
            Because
 
I told you
 
            You must listen
 
And
 
            Respect me
 
And
 
            Never do it again
 
Because
 
            Say
 
Sorry
 
            Because
 
I love you.

Survival                                                                                             
 
 
We who accept survival as our password,
 
We who accept incompleteness as our blessing,
 
We who dress in blindness and in faith,
 
We who do not know the colour of our palms
 
nor the weight of our feet upon water,
 
We who have dust in our mouths all day
 
and stones on our tongues instead of songs,
 
We who quench fire with fire all night
 
We know that wings are not the only ladders
 
to the dark, that dumb stones fly too
 
in the hands of crawling children,
 
We who accept survival as our curse.