Partington is the former
poetry editor of East African
literary magazine, Kwani? He lives in Kenya.
How to Euthanise a Cactus [2010] is his second collection
of poetry. Other poems
have appeared in Africa
Report, The East African,
Pambazuka, and Kwani?
as well as The New Welsh
Review, Smiths Knoll, Verse,
Poetry Wales, Iron, Swansea
Review, and The Rialto.
In African Writing:
BookBrief: How to Euthanise a Cactus 
9 (Review)
How to Euthanise a Cactus is Stephen Derwent Partington’s new collection of 62 poems. A few themes runs through the poetry; there is a preoccupation with Kenya, nowhere more than in the shortest poem, A Freudian Slip in Six Steps: SARAJEVO/ SARAJEVA/ SARAJEGA/ SARAMEGA/ SAKAMEGA/ KAKAMEGA. Kakamega may of course not resonate to other publics quite as much as Sarajevo would, but it does lead to the other central pole of the collection, the Kenyan Crisis of 2007/8...
continues...
Three Poems 10 (Poems)
Rain like any other for the past few weeks,
but this much caught my eyes: the way it slanted
with a constant perfect parallel to all the houses' roof
as if the squall were truly sentient and keen to reach the earth
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