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Poem

Tari Mtetwa

Side by side

Original language

POTTER’S SONG

POTTER’S SONG

POTTER’S SONG

The clench of her fists
crushes the clay of earth
as if to condemn it wretched
and squeeze out
the last of its life
her uncompromising grip
mingles the clay’s misery
to finesse’s beauty
by a tender soothing
of her finger’s stroke
and crafty tips’ pacifying
till the blood of her warmth
wakes the mass of mud
into a breath of many years
a dance of endless swings
and a song’s mirth
of andante strains
sweetly the potter’s song

© 2011, Tari Mtetwa
Publisher: First published on PIW,

Tari Mtetwa

Tari Mtetwa

(Zimbabwe, 1982)

Tarisai Witness Mtetwa was born at St Augustine’s Mission near Mutare, and had a largely rural upbringing. He attended both primary and secondary school at St Augustine’s. Mtetwa began writing poetry at high school. “Even though I was not in a literature class,” he says, “I earnestly read all the books that fellow students were studying. I then developed an interest in literature, poetry in par...

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Poems of Tari Mtetwa

NEVER THOUGHT I’D BE A RIVER

First

Naked

GRAVE-DEEP WHISTLER

Rock

Here

WITHOUT-A-NAME

POTTER’S SONG

Outside

OLD SCHOOL JAM SESSION ON RADIO

Close

POTTER’S SONG

The clench of her fists
crushes the clay of earth
as if to condemn it wretched
and squeeze out
the last of its life
her uncompromising grip
mingles the clay’s misery
to finesse’s beauty
by a tender soothing
of her finger’s stroke
and crafty tips’ pacifying
till the blood of her warmth
wakes the mass of mud
into a breath of many years
a dance of endless swings
and a song’s mirth
of andante strains
sweetly the potter’s song

POTTER’S SONG

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