earthstepper/ the ocean is very shallow

By Seitlhamo Motsapi

i have one eye full of dreams & hintentions

the other is full of broken mirrors

& cracked churchbells

i have one eye full of rivers & welcomes

the other is full of flickers & fades

i have

a memory full of paths & anointings

a mouth full of ripe infant suns

seven legs for the dancing river & the clement abyss

& a hope that corrodes the convulsions

we bless the long rough road

we bless the inscrutable darkness

where our names are rent into spirit

we bless the splinters & the air full of asphyxiations & amnesia

we bless our lacerations & our deformities

This book is a redesigned second printing of Seitlhamo Motsapi's acclaimed earthstepper, first published in 1996. Reviewing earthstepper in New Coin, Laura Chrisman wrote:

A very far cry from official New South African pietistic discourse of reconciliation, this collection brilliantly fuses pan-Africanist militancy, romantic spirituality, and scathing attack on neo-colonialism in its global and local forms. The political urgency is never compromised by empty rhetorical posturing or aesthetic banality: this is a rich, experimental poetry, raining down fresh imagery, complex conceits carefully patterned to produce a volume of striking originality and stylistic rigour.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0958454221
• ISBN13: 9780958454223
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Deep South
• Length: 85 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 4.9" x 7.5"