Girl-Child Woman

By Lindisa Mathabela

Let's embrace our pillows,
let's cheer up the willows,
let's purr with the dogs and bark
with the cats,
Come be weird with me.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: May 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493194452

Lindisa Mathabela

Lindisa Mathabela is a reluctant poet who describes herself as, "nothing much really, just a high school kid with excess ideas that crave to be expressed. I live a basic life with not too many people involved. I am myself and I speak my mind". She is only seventeen, yet her poetry explores deeper themes on the scale of Maya Angelou. Born in 1996 in Johannesburg, South Africa, Lindisa was suicidal in her early teens. She took to writing as a refuge; hence her reluctance to share her work with a wider readership. Her writing gives of whiffs of Bessie Head, of Olive Schreiner, of Maya Angelou. But she is none of these, but a compelling fresh voice from Africa.

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Copyright © 2014 by Lindisa Mathabela.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 05/07/2014

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris LLC

0-800-056-3182

www.xlibrispublishing.co.uk

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619971

CONTENTS

Foreword

Come Be Weird With Me

And Then There Was Silence…

03:19

Conjure Of Night

The Gradual

RA KAMARIA

Wednesday

Psychosis

Theatre

We Are African

Casual Thursday

To You

My Lips To Teach

Woman, Black Woman

Odds

Silent Sadness

I Am

Last Night I Went On A Journey

the RITUAL

The End?

Backward

HIT

Artist’s Art

Imagine

GOVERNOR

Girl-Child Woman

Softly

.

Look Again

New

Moon’s Mourning

This Morning’s Dream

Pace

The Theory

DEFIANT

Sad Silence

Untitled

Irresolute In Four

Detail

The Previous Present

Her

Going Up In Smoke

To The Porter

Touch

The Sweep

Windows

LUCID DREAM

The Local Imaginarium

Simple Joy

R.i.p Love

Devouring Innocence

Interesting Little Creature

I’m No Poete

Destructive Interference

Baggage

Free

**Sentimental**

Stage. Girl.

Should Not Be

Rhythm, The Ruler Of Beings

Music At Twilight

When She Wakes Up

Soiree For The Somber

This book is dedicated to all the children who are aimlessly wandering the streets of the world and who will never realize their full potential due to societal constraints. Every street child is a blight to humanity’s civilization. May this book be a reminder to society’s architects and all humanity, that every child has the potential to uplift humanity to a higher plane—given the opportunity.

—Lindarkie

FOREWORD

It would not be an exaggeration to describe Lindisa Mathabela’s poetry collection, girl-child woman, as a work of a budding genius eager to express itself, infused with a deep sense of independence of mind, unbending individuality and unshakeable love for Africa. It is the work of a deeply insightful writer caught between the worlds of a teenager and of a grown woman.

As the title itself indicates, the anthology ably captures the insights and tribulations of a teenager who is making the transition to womanhood. In many ways the book tells the story of a transition, both physical and psychological, and Mathabela’s precocious brilliance shines very brightly throughout it. Not only is her writing powerfully evocative and lyrical, as tends to be the case with poetry that remains relevant throughout the ages, but it is also very impressive in terms of the breadth of its subject matter.

While we are all creatures of our times, with our observations confined to our immediate vistas, Mathabela’s incisive mind goes far beyond events and experiences that would be expected of somebody of her age. Instead, her observations of and commentaries on human beings and their foibles are more generic rather than specific to a particular country, region or era.

While written by a young woman in South Africa, Mathabela’s girl-child woman is as relevant and no doubt as pleasurable to read to an African as it is to people in any part of the universe—so strong is her sense of universal citizenship. She accomplishes this feat while remaining very