Title: Live Like An Artist Author: David Mungoshi ISBN: 978-07974-7154-2 Publisher: Bhabhu Books (2017)
In a literary landscape now scattered with what I term political or gender activism literature, with writers trying to push theses at the expense of art, David Mungoshi’s latest poetry collection, Live like an Artist, stands out for capturing and broadcasting personal life experiences.
REVIEWED By BENIAH MUNENGWA
Someone once said poetry was an important way of expressing the individuality of our voices, joy and pain, and that one of its missions was to elevate language to a level that can express the specific temperament of individual experience.
Although these words struck a chord with me, they were not as vivid as the impression that I got after reading through Live like an Artist.
Live like an Artist exudes the dark auras of an elderly man stranded on a “death-bed” and reminiscing about his yesteryear experiences as the dark shadow of death looms over him. The compilation, although penned by one man, carries within itself more than just the identity of the poet, but those of the editor, Ignatius Mabasa, and selector, Memory Chirere, too.
It is confessional in a subtle way as it digs deep into the persona of the poet, revealing that he, as a man, had a way with women during his heyday. And those experiences are a fine blend of bitterness and a longing for a love one is compelled he never found. This is seen in his tone and his use of the word “she-devil”, which may prompt those who look at life through the prism of feminism to brand the poet sexist.
A number of poems explore feelings of regret of love he let go, lovers he disappointed, a love that he now yearns for. Love resonates from childhood fantasies in Puppy Love to adult wishes in Hold My Hand I’m Dying.
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The poem, Stories from my Picture Album, though beautiful, strongly reminded me of Memory Chirere’s Pikicha from the witty anthology, Bhuku Risina Basa.
To understand Live like an Artist you should both have led a life and retired from it or you should ask from those who have gone all the way to adulthood, if not to the very twilight of their lives.
That Mungoshi is a fundi for language comes out strongly in this collection, and the extensive influence of Victorian poetry is inescapable, too. For a moment, you would think the book was written by an Englishman.
Themes of love, ageing and death run through the anthology and speak of a man who was bedridden, battling illness and fighting for his life. I found the tempo rising as I went deeper into the anthology.
The poem that I found outstanding is A Different School of Romance. Here, Mungoshi redefines romance. It comes just after the poem Bang! Bang! Bang! This is a poem that takes a dig on selfish quick copulation inspired by the men’s desire to satisfy their lust at the expense of pleasing their partner.
According to the terror management theory framework and research, older people though on their likely verge with death, are less afraid of death. Therefore, that reflects how David Mungoshi managed to romance, dance and even court with death as shown by the poem, Toothless Mouth in which he writes, “…from the grimness of your deathbed you make stunning discoveries:/that you too can die/that there’s no tragedy in dying/and that death is just another of life’s imperatives.”
And you might be asking, what does it mean, to live like an artist? Oh well, that is made simple by the anthology. It’s living up to your full potential, risking here, regretting there, starting this and moving on there and above all being creative and a whole lot you will find out on your own.
Quite clearly, the beautiful poetry bestowed in the anthology is timeless, mature and vivid, but remains limited to the ageing group that understands the talk of death, Victorian English, lost love, regrets, yearnings and opening up on a life typically not well lived.
But, no matter how beautiful or exhilarating the anthology has been, when I think this anthology does not come anywhere near Charles Mungoshi’s sole volume of poetry, The Milkman Doesn’t Only Deliver Milk.
Feedback: benmunengwa@gmail.com
