Dorian Haarhoff (Namibia)
Por: Dorian Haarhoff
Feather Prayer
in Egypt, Osiris,
Lord of the underworld,
weighed the hearts
of those who crossed over
against the plume of truth.
those light of heart,
lived in his chambers
endlessly. while the crocodile,
monster of the Nile,
devoured souls
heavy with matter.
weigh my quill of words
on the scales of space
so they measure against
what the guinea fowl
has left on the grass -
the lightness of a feather.
Dorian Haarhoff was born in Namibia in 1944. Poet, narrator and workshop director of creative writing in África and in Canada. Professor of English Literature in the University of Namibia. One of his collections, Bordering includes a poetic history of his country. School songs is one of his lyrical books. His books for children include: Desert December, 1994; and Guano Girl and a children's play, Alice in Welwitschialand. He was invited to the Poetry Africa Festival in Durban, South África, in 2004. He has been published in magazines of India. His work is filled up with a mythological and psychological atmosphere also with the new physics and the narrative therapy. He wrote his first poem when he was 11 at the death of his father, from then on he discovers the relationships between poetry and health. Other works: The Writer's Voice, 1998; Tortoise Voices, 2001; Bordering, 1991; Aquifers and Dust, 1994; Tortoise Stories, Stories from Africa and the Great Elsewhere, CD, 2002.
