Ruvimbo MarthaJeche pens imagery-tightened verses, hot and soul scalding teardrops gradually falling from an age-smitten eyelid of life-tired eyes that have seen the ragged aftermath of a stray bullets in war time or otherwise, weary eyes that watched trailblazing /action packed movies of humanity betraying its conscience, sorrow soaked eyes that witnessed the death of hope, ugliness of beauty and demise of light in every quarter of our earth. The authors eyes are pepper red on experiencing the abject suffering of womanity
The song came from her belly,
A song of change,
A song of renewal.
Fine tunes she dreamt of,
Bringing blossoms to her neglected life.
Yet when the voices from her belly began to sing,
She remembered her own story
And wondered how she kept on.
Her poems are word-nuggets of mystery, they taste fresh heaven raindrops soaking the October sun-caked earth after a rough double- decade of life-sapping heat waves and ravaging droughts.
The vivid imagery is a perception -shifting but a dirty mopping detergent bleaching lives lived in bleak sin and utter ignorance into sanity- the bravery displayed in your message , the stead gloved in your reason and then that depth exhibited by the simplicity in the dictionary edifies the literary flavour , powerful /requisite poetry ingredients suitable for such an artistic exhibition .
I wanted to bring a praise song
But I was with so many sad words in my heart.
I was too tired to shout
Too hurt to remove the chains that hold me,
My hands too pained to remove the rag on the piano.
But when I looked up
My heart leaped,
I cried,
I hope my cry sang.
Prowess/Dexterity become Siamese twins of Jeches refined poetic voice- I love the musical rhythm that evokes readers to jive as we always do to the mesmerizing tenor/wonder base of thumb-pianos.
When the sun shall lay low and is overtaken by the night,
When the night shall stand still and darkness overtakes every deep,
When darkness shall scare my shadow and owls hoot all night long,
I shall fear not for I know at midnight the moon will wait for me till sunrise.
I shall fear not the sound of any for at dawn the birds will sing for me the loudest!
Ruvimbo is an amazing rhythmic/poetic Dzimbadzemabwe storyteller, the heroine poet sees rays of freedom through broken dawn of metaphor her past is not a past of harmony of peace and freedom .She gulped tears of rough abuse and bathed in the sweat of tough pain. She is a fighter, an iconic womanity heroine of this red/black earth. She sees peace, freedom and harmony through the broken lights of metaphor, through breaking dawn of poetry and through disintegrated rays of the imagery of the new sun.
She sings that poetry of mothers that painfully walked over the hot sands of deadly violence. She writes bitter –sweet psalms on sandy paper mats wetted by the mucus of long gone sisters thrown in deep dungeons of stagnancy and dark pits of ignorance.
When at the end of my dreams,
And all I know are songs from the vales afar,
Teach me the old hymns of my gods on high.
When I am yearning for a warm wind& embrace,
Tell me the tales of soldiers long gone
And sing for me the old hymns of faith.
Sing with me till the night smiles at me,
She paints artistic visuals of daughters roasted in blood sapping furnaces of negative culture and hope-wilting archaic traditions of this tormented earth.
She traces the life stencils of her grandmother with an amazing –smoke-smoking poetic pen. She speaks the sorrow and pain of her mother-earth through poetic parables.
The pain in my heart
opens wide my chest
craving for my own sanity.
I cry out not
for silence is more peaceful,
I& have been told.
If only my bitterness had a rhythm,
Then maybe they would hear the sound of my hurt.
Jeche heavily answers back to the negatively – energized devil with a stubborn –choking – rude-metaphoric poetic proverb. She remains a brave storyteller, a strong wordsmith, a determined spoken word artist, a heroine, a sister and amazing poet.
Dear Afeyethe,
Remember
you wept all-night without filling the sky with your pain.
Remember,
nothing was wrong with you even when he cursed you;
You are an idiot,
A fool- so pathetic.
Remember the days you cried unto the cold floor,
Begging to gods and goddesses so far,
Asking questions and never getting the answers;
Do I deserve this?
Her forthcoming poetry collection Tales of Afeyethe becomes an literary encyclopaedia of womanity , a biblical psalms of women- rights and poetic handbook that breaks the chains of arhaic /savage ideologies choking the forward -spirits of mothers/daughters/sisters /women.
Ruvimbo Martha Jeche is a Zimbabwean writer who writes in English and Shona. She is a BSc Honours in Administration and Master of Public Administration graduate from the University of Zimbabwe. She writes for all humankind, that is, the man and the woman as a religious species, psychological being and importantly as a citizen to be appreciated and included. She advocates for inclusion of the civic and human rights in public policy and governance processes. Her work has been featured in The Newsday Zimbabwe, News Hawks, Bold Dialogue Magazine and the Queensdale Report courtesy of the Gourd of Consciousness Poetry. She has published a poetry collection titled The Midnight Haul and is a co-author to Dear Married Man and Jongwe neSheche poetry collection.
( Mbizo Chirasha-Critical Reviewer/Curator)Mbizo Chirasha is the founder of the Writing Ukraine Prize (2022-23), UNESCO-RILA Affiliate Artist (University of Glasgow, School of Education, Scotland).2020 Poet of Residence at the Fictional Café (International literary culture Writers Space).2019 IHRAF Pan Writivism/African Fellow .2020 free-Speech Fellow at PEN -Germany Writers in Exile Program. Resident Coordinator at All Africa Live Poetry Symposium (100tpc, USA, global).Festival Poet at Poesia de Medellin( Columbia), Guest Writer at University of Glasgow Creative Writing Programme(Sept,2020). Guest Speaker at SpokenWordOonline(Paris).2019 live literature hub Producer at Sotambe Film Arts Festival (Kitwe, Zambia). 2015Jury President at Shungunamutitima Film Festival (Livingstone, Zambia).2009 Poet in Residence at ICACD (Accra, Ghana). 2009 Fellow at UNESCO-Photo Novel Intensive Training (Tanzania).2011 United States Embassy, Harare Guest Poet at World Poetry Day (Harare, Zimbabwe).2007 Producer/Coordinator of This is Artist Artist in Residence Project (Goethe-Zentrum, Harare) 2006 United Nations Tribute to Kofi Annan Poet .2003 ZIBF ,100 Best Books Young literary/writing delegate to Goteborg Book Fair (Sweden).Chirasha is the Publisher of the Time of the Poet Republic. Curator of WOMAWORDS Literary Press.
Mbizo Chirasha (African WilliamBlake) 