Weekend poem: Dennis Brutus

Dennis Brutus

And the riptides rip and tear
erode, devour
and unrest, questing, yeasts in my querying brain
and I beat on the fierce savaging knowledge
rampaging through my existence
accepting the knowledge, seeking design

For I am driftwood
in a life and place and time
thrown by some chance, perchance
to an occasional use
a rare half pleasure on a seldom chance

and I grate on the sand of being
of existence, circumstance
digging and dragging for a meaning
dragging through the dirt and debris
the refuse of existence
dragging through the diurnal treadmill of my life

and still I am diftwood.
Still the restlesnness, the journeyings, the quest,
the querying, the hungers and the lusts.

Ageing

The road, too, diminishes:

one would see less if one tried:

it is what ageing is about -

if one gave it thought:

generally though, one is content

eyes fixed on the road

content to see what can be seen

unanxious to speculate

about a possible road -

the diminishing road

Musgrave,

July 7 2008

The economy of grace: New online collection of poems by Dennis Brutus

“No poem is ever finished—it is merely abandoned.”

“Perhaps all poems are merely drafts.”
Dennis Brutus

"Someone
made me more alive,
more human;
I repay that gift
by making more alive
someone else".

Dennis Brutus
Nov 14 1976

For those of us involved in social and political activism the poet Dennis Brutus is an inspiration. Brutus's poetry has appeared many times on this blog (here).

So imagine my excitement when I stumbled across this online collection of unpublished poems by Dennis Brutus "Poetry and Human Rights: Poems by Dennis Brutus"  published by Worcester State College. The book contains many unpublished poems uncovered in Brutus private papers held by Worcester State College.

In his famous poem "Easter 1916" the Irish poem W.B Yeats warned of the emotional price paid by those involved in political struggle:

" Too much sacrifice
can make a stone of the heart"

What I find inspiring about Dennis Brutus's work is that despite his intense lifelong political commitment and engagement , his heart never turned to stone.

"I salute the jacarandas anyway
whatever else the world may offer
offer for our praise
or our opprobrium
I salute the jacarandas anyway.


It will be as if I never lived
there will be no trace of me
there will be no sign of me remembered
it will be as if I never lived
no trace of me will remain
it will be as if nothing had been.


What will it matter if nothing remains?


you will have breathed the fresh morning air
and walked the dewy morning grass
and will have asserted for once your being


and I will salute the jacarandas once more.


Oct. 3, 2008
For Mahmoud Darwish
East London, Oct. 11, 2008

 * * * * * *
X Parish, New Orleans
Corpses floating in that murk
of water, mud, debris, arms dangling
or stiff in death’s rigor, breasts
bloated with congealed blood;
burly boatmen, bursting with vigor
in orange protectors, pole
their skiffs expertly, their tenterhooks
grapple with cadavers, impale thighs
exposed in death’s indifferent obscenity;
in call centers data clerks enter ciphers
that record someone’s loss:
there is no place for grief.
Oct., 2005


* * * * * *
An erratic experience
concrete wilderness
a scrivener’s jungle
they will exclaim dismayed
somewhat in pity, somewhat in horror
while I chuckle amused
buried in my predicament.


* * * * * *
Beyond this problem
many others rise
peaks loom through mists
beyond this range
gathering our energies
we know much more
will be demanded
in times to come.

July 21, 2004

Dennis Brutus: Letting the facts sing

"Sometimes a mesh of ideas
webs the entranced mind,
the assenting delighted mental eye;
and sometimes the thrust and clash
of forged and metalled words
makes musical clangour in the brain;
and sometimes a nude and simple word
standing unlit or adorned
may plead mutely in cold or dark
for an answering warmth, an enlightening
              sympathy;
state the bare fact and let it sing."

Dennis Brutus
from A Simple Lust: Collected Poems of South African Jail & Exile

Dennis Brutus: "age and anguish yield a harvest"

Poems by Dennis Brutus from his book Stubborn Hope







Age and Anguish yield a harvest
Dennis Brutus

Age and anguish yield a harvest
star precious as the lilts of youth
inhabit an arctic of perennial grief
For those who never see the sun
the cold is a familiar
and dark the normal habitat
The barnacles of grief acquire patinas
They yield their own
deceptive light
our hearts become
inured to dying.

That People Care
Dennis Brutus 

That people care
is more than money
their thoughts, their love, their prayers
this is what gives us strength

And when they praise
we are ashamed
of our complaints
our failure to endure

That people care
is more to us than weapons-
and that they share
our fights and anxieties.

Dennis Brutus and the experience of "just coming and going"

Dennis Brutus's poem captures something of my mood and state of being at the moment.

I come and go
I come and go
a pilgrim
greedily unkempt
stubbornly cheerful
defiantly whistling hope
and grabbing for crumbs of success
out of all near-defeats


I shuffle through the waiting rooms
and the air terminals of the world
imposing and importuning
while the politely courteous
acquaintances
co-operate
help arrange my departures
without any pang of greeting

I work my stubborn difficult unrewarding will
obtusely addleheaded clumsy:
some few things happen
and I plod or shuffle or amble
wracked with anguished frustrate hunger
and go on.

"The ticking explosives of reproach and challenge": The poetry of Dennis Brutus

You have to decide which side you are on: there is always a side. Commitment does not exist in an abstraction; it exists in action” Dennis Brutus, 1975

Thanks to all those who have been interested enough to read my pieces on Dennis Brutus. Here are some of his poems (from Poetry and Protest: A Dennis Brutus Reader).
 
I must lug my battered body
garbage-littered
across the frontiers of the world,
recite my wear-shined cliches
for nameless firesides
and fidget, a supple suppliant, for papers,
in a thousand wooden-ante rooms;
wince, in the tense air of recognition
as the clean-limbed, simple and innconent grow hostile;
-in my baggage I bear the ticking explosives
of reproach, and threat and challenge.
Dennis Brutus
Epping Sydney 1970

Forgive me comrades
if I say something apolitical
and shamefully emotional
but in the drak of the night
it is as if my heart is clutched
by a giant iron hand:
"Treachery, treachery" I cry out
thinking of you comrades
and how you have betrayed
the things we suffered for.
Dennis Brutus
August 23 2000, 3.05am 
I
Some voices must be silenced
they threaten the structures
of seemingly safe respectable lives
their clear vibrations
may shelter the crystalline shelters
that encase us from reality
shielding us from unbearable truths

but some may choose not to be deaf
they beat with broken palms
against the smooth impenetrable glass
of lies and comfort and power
and beg to hear the piteous cries
rising from the smoke and fire:
some voices must not be silenced
II
The smooth impenetrable glass
of indifference and caring
is cool and pleasant to the touch
like the stone heart of power
that conceals the rotteness within
III
In the night anger
burns like fire
along the veins
in the brain
and at the core
of the anguished
unavailing heart
Dennis Brutus
extract from Sequence for Mumia Abu Jamal 2005

The comments below encapsulate the significance of Dennis Brutus's poetry and are from the blog I Muse which focuses on African culture;

One of the most profound and lasting ways in which Brutus carried this torch of experiences was through his poetry. In his poetry, Brutus returned powerfully to his traumatic experience of punishment and isolation on Robben Island. They contain some of the most harrowing descriptions of daily prison life, a season in hell that left a lasting mark on Brutus both physically and mentally. To use poetry as a means of fighting back against the forces of oppression and exploitation was not just an intellectual choice, but an existential cry from the heart for social change. These autobiographical writings not only provide unique documentation of the cruelties of an oppressive system; they also help us understand Brutus' determination to convey the lessons of the past to those who are struggling for a better future.

Remembering Dennis Brutus and all he stood for

"If you have a sense that there is this global struggle going on, where one is winning little victories in a number of places, then the real question in my mind should be how do we combine all these successes and develop them into a powerful voice. But it certainly seems to me that the mere fact that one is occasionally winning a few victories, however small they be, is one way to keep going" Dennis Brutus 2008

Twelve months have passed since Dennis Brutus- South African poet, political activist, environmental and social justice activist and freedom fighter- passed on.

Brutus's achievements were many, notably his poetry, his anti-apartheid activism and his leadership of the anti-apartheid sports boycott campaigns, which played a key role in ending apartheid. As a tribute to Dennis Brutus's legacy the excellent US online publication Truth Out has published Beverley Bell's euology for Dennis Brutus, A Small Tribute to a Giant Man. Bell reminds us of Brutus's humility and compasssion and his profound commitment to the struggle against injustice. She writes that Brutus's message was:

" .. in the humility with which he carried himself, the kindness with which he treated others, and the wisdom and clarity of his words. His message, and his life, lay also in the strength of his convictions and the energy with which he worked for them whether the cause be liberation form oppressive regimes; reparations to victims of apartheid from corporations that made profits off the system; the dissolution of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organisation; or control over corporations creating climate change"

There is much we can learn from Brutus's example. Bell points out that Brutus urged activists to direct their anger at unjust systems and policies and not waste it on the individuals behind them. He urged people to keep their eye on the ultimate goal; the principles at play.

Bell tells us that Brutus was tireless and fearless into his 80's and until the day he died he was working and fighting for social, economic and environmental justice. At the time of his death Brutus was fighting global corporations who had propped up and benefited from the apartheid regime.

"He lobbied us all to involve ourselves, to turn out, to unite our voice and strength, to do more than we were already doing".

I have written before about the legacy of Dennis Brutus's life, work and poetry. A piece I wrote on his death in 2009 has been republished on this blog. Other pieces can be found here.

"Wincing at oft repeated lies": in memory of Dennis Brutus (1924-2009)

This piece was first published in December 2009.

"Somehow we survive
and tenderness, frustrated does not wither. Investigating searchlights rakeour naked unprotected contours...boots club the peeling door.
But somehow we survive
severance, deprivation, loss.
Patrols uncoil along the asphalt dark
hissing their menace to our lives,most cruel, all our land is scarred with terror,
rendered unlovely and unlovable:
sundered are we and all our passionate surrender
but somehow tenderness survive.
Dennis Brutus "Somehow We Survive"

There are some people whose lives inspire the rest of us to never lose our voice on social justice and human rights. The South African anti-apartheid activist, poet, social justice campaigner and academic Dennis Brutus is one such person.

Amy Goodman and the Democracy Now team (here, here and here), Dave Zurin, Patrick Bond and the team at Rabble have written fine pieces in tribute to the live and legacy of Dennis Brutus who died in Capetown in the days after Xmas. Brutus, who was recognized as one of Africa's finest poets, died at age 85 after an amazing and inspiring life spent fighting for economic and social justice and human rights. Brutus published over a dozen books of poetry, including, a 2006 compilation of his work, Poetry and Protest. Many of his poems were written secretly when he was avoiding the South African authorities or in prison.

Brutus political activism began as protest against the white domination of sport in South Africa where he pioneered the idea of using sport as a political lever for political change. In 1958 he formed the South African Sports Association and the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee. Brutus believed passionately in the potential of sport to drive political change although as Dave Zirin points out Brutus came to believe that was no longer the case, having recently said

"My own sense is that is that sports has less capacity now to change society than it did before.. sports has become so commercialized.. the other thing that really scares me is the way sport is used to divert people's attention... We must however realize the power and reach of sports is undeniable.. People will hear political athletes because their voice is amplified".

Brutus publicly rejected induction into the South African Sports Hall of Fame in 2007, famously saying at the awards ceremony: "It is incompatible to have those who championed racist sport alongside its genuine victims. It's time - indeed long past time - for sports truth, apologies and reconciliation."

In 1963 Brutus was arrested by the South African government for anti-apartheid activities and spent 18 months on Robben Island at the same time as Nelson Mandela. In 1966 he was exiled from South Africa and went to the US where he lived as a stateless refugee for decades, avoiding efforts by the Reagan government to deport him. Brutus was instrumental in achieving sporting boycotts of South Africa and his activism resulted in the banning of South Africa from the Olympics from 1968 onwards. Brutus returned to South Africa in 1994 where he became a vocal critic of the ANC government.

Up until his death Brutus remained active in global struggles for social justice and economic justice, anti-privatization, corporate exploitation, debt forgiveness and human rights. He had recently protested against the the ways people in South Africa were being dispossessed by development for the 2010 soccer world cup.

In recent years he initiated campaigns against large corporations, such as Barclay’s Bank, Exxon Mobil, BP, Citigroup, General Motors, and Ford demanding reparations for vast apartheid profits. Days before the Copenhagen climate change summit he called the gathering a sham saying:

" We are in serious difficulty all over the planet. We are going to say to the world: There's too much of profit, too much of greed, too much of suffering by the poor.. The people of the planet must be in action"

In December he wrote about the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference where he warned against:

" brokering a deal that allows the corporations and the oil giants to continue to abuse the earth. Better that there is no deal, so that ordinary citizens can make their choices and voices heard, against the marketing excesses for the rich, allowing some to gorge themselves while others starve"

Brutus was asked once by Dave Zurin how he remained so politically active well into his eighties . Brutus replied:

"This is no time for laurels. This is no time for rest"

Dennis Brutus

" When we marched,
Slithered
Through slimy mud past riot shielded cops in Alexander
(This is the ghetto)
While children peered wild-eyed from dark windows,
For some of us these were re-runs of earlier apartheid-burdened days.
But, then, it was defiant resolution that drove our hearts and braced our feet.
Now, sadness at betrayal sat sadly on our hearts.
Our shouted slogans hung heavily over us in grimy air.
We winced at familiar oft-repeated lies
Oft-repeated lies." 

50th anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre

Sharpeville
Dennis Brutus

What is important
about Sharpeville
is not that seventy died:
nor even that they were shot in the back
retreating, unarmed, defenseless
and certainly not
the heavy caliber slug
that tore through a mother’s back
and ripped through the child in her arms
killing it

Remember Sharpeville
bullet-in-the-back day
Because it epitomized oppression
and the nature of society
more clearly than anything else;
it was the classic event

Nowhere is racial dominance
more clearly defined
nowhere the will to oppress
more clearly demonstrated

what the world whispers
apartheid with snarling guns
the blood lust after
South Africa spills in the dust

Remember Sharpeville
Remember bullet-in-the-back day

And remember the unquenchable will for freedom
Remember the dead
and be glad.

© Dennis Brutus

Monday this week- the 21st March- marked the 50th anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, an event that proved to be a turning point in the struggle to overthrow the South African apartheid regime. Survivors and families of victims met in Sharpeville to remember the events that occurred over 50 years ago and lay wreaths at the cemetery on the gravestones of those killed.

On March 21 1960 some 7000 demonstrators rallied at the township of Sharpeville in the Transvaal to protest the hated pass laws that required black and colored South Africans to carry a pass book. Police opened fire on the demonstrators, killing 69 and injuring over 200. Many of the victims were women and children.

The massacre proved to be a catalyst for armed resistance and international condemnation of the Apartheid regime.

What is interesting about Sharpeville is that the demonstrations were organized not by the African National Congress (ANC), but by the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) , a break away group dissatisfied with the pace and intensity of the ANC's campaigns. The PAC proved to be the party of action in the struggle against apartheid. The PAC still exists in South Africa but is struggling to survive as a political force.

Ironic to note as well that the 50 years after the Sharpeville massacre the celebrations are taking place amidst a backdrop pf protests and demonstrations by impoverished black communities demanding basic services such as clean water, housing and electricity that the ANC government has failed to deliver.

In South Africa since 1994 March 21 is Human Rights Day. March 21 is also the International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination in memory of the massacre.

The UK Guardian has an audio sideshow that relives the events of March 21 1950 through the account of survivor Ikabot 'Ike' Makiki.

Interview with Dennis Brutus

image by Carlos Lutuff from Yes Magazine

There will come a time we believe
when the shape of the planet
and the divisions of the land
will be less important.
We will be caught in a glow of friendship
A red star of hope will illuminate our lives
A star of hope
A star of joy
A star of freedom
Dennis Brutus 2008

"I went to prison on Robben Island. I was arrested for protesting against apartheid. I was willing to make that sacrifice for the struggle. And I will continue as long as I am alive"
Dennis Brutus 2008

The excellent publication Foreign Policy in Focus has published an interview with South African anti-apartheid activist and poet Dennis Brutus who died in December 2009. (I have written about Dennis Brutus before here, here and here). The interview took place a few months before his death and ranges over Brutus's formative years, his life as an anti- apartheid activist and poet, and his thoughts about contemporary events. Brutus continues to be an inspiration for people who rail against injustice and oppression. The quotes and poem below are from the interview.

If you have a sense that there is this global struggle going on, where one is winning little victories in a number of places, then the real question in my mind should be how do we combine all these successes and develop them into a powerful voice. But it certainly seems to me that the mere fact that one is occasionally winning a few victories, however small they be, is one way to keep going"

"It seems to me that at the heart of the present system of exploitation and oppression are the concepts of private property and profit. Sooner or later we're going to have to grapple with that issue. If we don't, I think we cannot say that we are serious about changing the world"

At Night after Porto Alegre
In South African Airways 747

In this dim winged cathedral
soaring above oceans of silvery cloud
far beyond Atlantic's tumultuous heave
we move, star-girt distant
from greed's debris, genocides calcineal bones
curled in our own private shrines
or bent over light-pooled pages
we move to a new world, a new earth where finally
our dreams can be fulfilled

Tributes to Dennis Brutus

I have been reading the hundreds of tributes to the life of poet, anti apartheid campaigner and social justice activist Dennis Brutus which are gathered together on Pambazuka: Pan African Voices for Freedom and Justice. They are a testimony to a remarkable man and a remarkable life.