Poem: Beautiful Mistake

I'm gonna embrace you

Even though you're wrong

I'm going to make the

Beautiful mistake 

Of colliding with your body

In the daytime

And in the middle of the night

I'm gonna let you

Take over me

Like a shadow of the alps

Over the earth below

As the sun sets behind it

I'm gonna let you

Change colours on me

And repaint me

Like i'm your muse

I'm gonna be at your disposal

In the name of youth

And for the sake of a thrill

I'm gonna be your teenage dream

Making you scream my name

With your fingers 

Walking through my head

Like a clan of warriors

Across grassy plains

I'm gonna give you a 

Reason to remember my name

Forever

©RaeezJacobs. Poetry. 2013

Poem: To The Words in My Head- Raeez Jacobs

I can't find the words

My world's gone weird

Momentarily

I thought you reappeared

And set my bed ablaze

With light followed

By sparks 

Made my heart ricochet 

After all the times i called

The nights i read your name in prayer

And gave up everything

So that i could have you

Or a little piece of you

You came like the war

I was never prepared for

Held me by a gasp

And took my breath away

Stunned and impassioned me 

My lips quivered to live in the shadow of the lips you pouted

In my world with the sun setting

In the scotch whiskey air

You gave me dreams 

And all i desired was the touch of your hand

And now i have you

And that i'm  yet to understand. 

©RaeezJacobs.Poetry. 2013

Amnesty International ArtsFest

Here's a video clip, of my poetry recital from the 2011 Amnesty International (Wits) Annual ArtsFest. The poem is called, Medusa. It remains one of my favourite poems, and I am very proud of the places its gone to, and the people it has revealed itself to. I suppose one focal aspect of poetry, is to do what a novel does, without all the chapters and tedious descriptions that span over 300 or so pages sometimes. Medusa is a metaphorical poem, aimed at the advent of the 'Corrective Rape' phenomena that unfolded egregiously in South Africa, first when the Banyana Banyana star was brutally slain for celebrating her sexuality, then the headlining murders of several other young, predominantly black lesbians in the country. The Caster Semanya debacle had just scratched open wounds, that many gender-rights activists had long feared would cause the fabric of society to disintegrate hysterically and unsparingly. The phenomena was interlinked with an assumption, or a misconception rather, by some black men and homophobic citizens, that raping a lesbian woman would cause her to come to the egress of her "newfound heterosexuality." In the poem, Medusa (a Goddess of the ancient greek times who was sent to live in the 'Hades' away from her privilege) is an allegorical figure of modern day torture, who is subjugated and compelled to accept a life of solitude, whilst simultaneously dealing with the fact that she had been defiled through the desecration of her body- she had been raped...corrective-ly.

[Poem] Where the winds rape the shell

She wakes to the sound of nothing;

yet today, the world is her only song-

to which she- lone heart as a once-boat,

must travel beyond her path.

The Gods delude her, though even

she is excited by

their seasons, and how they force the tide

to reach a high, outside the window; where the winds rape the shell.

She speaks in one voice only; the tongue of the seas-

the mermaid upon the sand, like a goddess.

It is the feel of the town, and the breath of the

city through which her eyes

kiss the dawn.

-Raeez Jacobs

©Raeez Jacobs. 2012

Poem: The Slaying of The Butterfly

The Slaying of The Butterfly 

The fair sex- girl mouthed,
and mermaid formed
with the apple of Adam
and the hairs of some Beatrice
ranting about as paid locks
die by the floor of the heaving shoulder,
and the beads of overflowing sweat
as tides of angst by the ocean's despair
slam waves against the chest
where the soul breathes
causing the premature stare
into the darkness from which
even the bluest eye
cannot be averted.

- By Raeez Jacobs

© Raeez Jacobs. 2012. All Rights Reserved.

Poem: By the Eyes of the Blind

By the Eyes of the Blind

We don't mind sharing a bedroom,

naive one and I, while

all the circus world goes by

our window. In the darkness,

we share a bed, and coil ourselves

together, not for warmth;

coiling in our habitual ritual

the twain pains amalgamated

by sweaty palms, and wooden knees

we are a lady's ripped dress in

the dim moonlight,

barely moon-splashed

for any sight,

only seen by the blind eye,

just as we are the only lie,

together, so coiled

waiting to hear any sound

while the floor vacillates 

and our eyes spill

curses, reluctantly,

till the circus world goes by.

- By Raeez Jacobs

© Raeez Jacobs. 2012. All Rights Reserved.