Poem

Tari Mtetwa

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Original language

WITHOUT-A-NAME

WITHOUT-A-NAME

WITHOUT-A-NAME

Without-a-name followed
the night’s folds
drifted from the screams
mocking the haunt of her void
she slid from hisses
calling names that undo
the name she is
she journeyed the night
away from the laughter
quizzing the name they say she is without
Without-a-name crossed the night’s cloud
into herself
where her name-worthy soul
names her yearning

© 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

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

WITHOUT-A-NAME

Without-a-name followed
the night’s folds
drifted from the screams
mocking the haunt of her void
she slid from hisses
calling names that undo
the name she is
she journeyed the night
away from the laughter
quizzing the name they say she is without
Without-a-name crossed the night’s cloud
into herself
where her name-worthy soul
names her yearning

WITHOUT-A-NAME

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