POEM 1:Mirroring

• Drawing begins as a method, a language, a technique for mapping migration and belonging.Home

• I interacted with drawing as a medium before realising it was a map.

• posed questions back to it. spoke to it.

• Note taking,

• something like archiving, storage.

• Deliberating in relationship to… extending oneself out …there.

• grappling. doing. processing.

• stalling. hoping. needing. realising.

• action needs to be taken.

  ………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

• I had to learn about the tools it was used to, and tools that it was open to.

  within the rigid structure can flexibility sustain itself through the cracks?

• Pencils, crayons, wax pastels, charcoal, pens, projection film, thread, tea leaves, cotton threads, metallic threads, various papers, wax paper. All of the unconventional things.

• I interacted with drawing as a teacher. a magi. learnt how to translate marks on the surface of the “page”.

• Everything for me BEGINS with lines. Remembering how to draft them.To craft, bend and to make them malleable. To make them move beyond the confines of a straight line.

• a map of manifestations, a map of desires, a map of promises and secrets. For Space making. For Storytelling. For running back and running away. For seeing and unseeing. For reorientation. For grace. for realising. REASSESSING. For forgiveness. For sense making.For knowing when to walk away. for trusting intuition. for recognising when you don’t feel like yourself anymore. for being reminded to listen to my body. soothe soothe soothe. for listening to my Messengers. stretch. what you avoid you attract. What you avoid persists. I get pissed off too. self love. focus on you.don’t over extend. my cup is empty. make you a priority. “Hana ka wen’!”. keep it real. for kindness. stay soft. my heart says that it can’t do this anymore.LEARNING THAT BEAUTIFUL THINGS CAN BE TURNED INTO SOMETHING UGLY, QUICKLY. Reminded that “I AM stuck in the past”.For accountability.purge, purge. release purge.D.I.S.C.E.R.N.M.E.N.T. for effort. for knowing this world is getting smaller. let go, let go. my anxiety worsened. even when I scared. Truth. All of the truth. For detaching. stillness. distance.Bravery and letting go. WITHDRAW.

  W.I.T.H.D.R.A.W.A.L.S

  For liberation.

  tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttiirred!

• imagine. imagine. imagine. imagination. imagine. imagine. imagination... image.

• DRAWING is a practice into existentialist philosophy. I summoned the extreme empath in me and established connections. To feel. To be present. To be here.

  wauwww!

• Drawing moulds my voice and teaches me how to negotiate my vulnerability. even when it feels dumb to say it out loud. showed me I can take up space. briefly.

• it teaches me how to protect myself when I am exposing myself.

• teaches me about fearlessness.

• Mediated the access that I allowed audiences to have to me.

• T o l d m e t o n e v e r r e v e a l

• Said she’d(drawing) command people to listen. To feel. To be present.

• When they ask, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

•  …

• Drawing continues to be a life line. Drawing as a guideline. drawing channels.

• I found my life. I found my light.  And I continue to find me.

• Drawing mirrors. unintentionally.

• translating - an interlocutor.

• From the basics.

• To … for

• The … in between

• Top … levitation

• Pathfinding/Re- rooting/ Rebooting/ Revision/ Repeat/ Release/ Alliterated notations on the page/

  Anchors!

• Drawing in “long form and drawing in short form”(after vangile gantsho). Drawing, misunderstood. drawn to Miscommunications. Obsessed. With. Wanting. To. know. Endless colour. A range of marks. A range of possibilities. A range of play.

• Drawing to scale.

• Drawing out of the frame.

• Drawing as a medium for finding voice.

• Drawing as listening. Drawing as in “we ‘bout to do it again, my friend.”

• drawing as in heartbreak.

• drawing as in falling.

• drawing as redemption.

• drawing as self love

• drawing as in coming back inwards

• drawing boundaries

• drawn to hope.

• drawn to love.

• drawn to joy.

• drawn to peace.

• drawn to forgiveness

• drawn to closure(s)

• drawn to grabbing all of me and all of it back!

• here.

• And some more.