This week”s poem inspired by events unfolding in Zimbabwe, and the cheerful marchers filling the streets of Harare with determined hope today…. whatever the future may bring.

Today for Zimbabwe

People so hungry for hope

They wave this flag without caution.

They will not wait,

They take their hope today

Today, shed their tears of joy

Today, dare to believe.

Today hope runs laughing through Harare

Weeping with joy in Bulawayo.

Today, speak without fear

Today, speak for yourself

The People are all tribes, all colors, today,

Soldiers and citizens, young and old.

Grace in disgrace,

Bob no longer your uncle.

Let tomorrow bring what it will,

Today is a day for Zimbabwe.

18 November 2019, Kampala

This week’s poem inspired by a day on Mt Elgon, in the East of Uganda, together with a big group of my new colleagues. A day of sun and rain, trekking and driving, getting close to each other and an amazing mountain.

Mt Elgon

From her broad shoulders to her weepy falls

Mt Elgon offers her view of the world,

Far stretching plains below,

Inside the crystal heart of an old volcano.

We scramble ant-like up her slopes,

Echoing our laughter in caves

Behind water curtains.

Thundering mist hides quick rolling clouds.

Slipping down trickling paths

Sudden rain offers risky water slides.

Blurry green dotted with pink flowers,

Banana leaf shelters and red coffee beans.

Cheered up-slope by morning sunshine

And clear views, she plays us sudden

Cloud tricks,

Wind whips,

Mud slips,

In an endlessly unpredictable drama

Drenched and mud-splattered

We return to the town below.

At sunset we admire her sparkling jewels,

Her shapely form, from a respectful distance.

Mbale, Uganda, 2017

This week’s poem – musings on whether what doesn’t kill us really does make us grow strong…. or if it just nearly kills us.

A Question of Strength 

Will we be stronger at the end?

Whenever, whatever that is.

Will we be seasoned and toughened and cool?

Or perhaps just a shadow of our former selves?

Will we gain understanding, sympathy

Thoughtfulness, from the stones on our path?

Or just bloodied, broken toenails

And a tendency to arthritis as we grow old?

Kampala 2017