Editors Note...

My personal style is reflective of my views on poetry — it’s eclectic and I like to subvert the building roles it carries. I didn’t realise that this was something I could only pull off in social spaces until lockdown because I didn’t have a lot of poetry books that I could read at home. I think people are looking for lighter poetry to whisk their minds off to fictional cities in the depth of their thoughts. Whether at the office or at home, poetry lovers always clamour for that ounce of poetry. The dawn of several social media platforms has made it easier for poets to send out their work to a wide and diversified audience. For example, poet Amanda Gorman has built a strong social media following of over 2 million followers. With such a large following, she is able to sell her poems and poetry books all over the world. Her poetry career took a sharp turn for the best when she read out a poem during American president Biden’s inauguration. Read all about her mercurial rise in this edition. Many African poets often think they lack that star dust quality to take their poetry further. But thats not true. Our many cultures and sub-cultures have monogrammed stories that the world is waiting to hear. For me, muted and monochromatic tones are intuitively indicative of the sign of the times. Not sombre, but a palette that honours the moment and lives that we’ve lost while at the same time conveying hope — joy, kindness and reverence for those who are privileged to be alive and whom we love and cherish. It seems we are beginning to realise that time is the most valuable currency and I think poetry is inextricably intertwined with that.