Poem

Tari Mtetwa

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NEVER THOUGHT I’D BE A RIVER

Never thought I’d be a river
and flow my freshness
into a salty sea
or surrender my life
into its dead end
never thought I’d lose my song
for its void silence
and the freedom of my waters
for its troubled waves
that are eternally the sea

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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NEVER THOUGHT I’D BE A RIVER

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Tari Mtetwa

NEVER THOUGHT I’D BE A RIVER

NEVER THOUGHT I’D BE A RIVER

NEVER THOUGHT I’D BE A RIVER

Tari Mtetwa

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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

NEVER THOUGHT I’D BE A RIVER

NEVER THOUGHT I’D BE A RIVER

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