The Live Poets Society (LIPS), which meets on the first Wednesday of each month, will be hosting a reading by Pietermaritzburg-based poet Kobus Moolman of his latest collection, Left Over (Dye Hard Press), at 5.30 pm for 6 pm on Wednesday, June 4 at A Novel Idea, 157 Blair Atholl Road, Westville North.

Left Over is Moolman's sixth collection of poems, and is widely acknowledged as his strongest to date. It describes the inner world of a man dealing with what the poet calls "being in the flesh, being a body in the world". Sparse but dense, the prose-like poetry is arresting in its intensity and power. Speaking of the work, Kelwyn Sole says, "Kobus Moolman's elliptical, foreshortened poetry opens up a world of exploration and heightened experience from which the reader eventually emerges, chastened but delighted.

These are poems of acumen, depth and extraordinary pressure." Moolman, who teaches creative writing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, has won numerous awards, including the Ingrid Jonker Prize, the Dalro poetry prize, the BBC African Theatre award, the South African Literary Award for poetry, and most recently the Sol Plaatje European Union poetry award.

In 2013 he was the Mellon Writer in Residence for three months in Grahamstown, courtesy of Rhodes University. Poets and lovers of poetry are welcome to listen and to read and to share their works and to discuss poetry in all its varied forms and uniqueness at LiPS meetings.

Admission is free. Inquiries: Danny Naicker at 083 282 0865 or e-mail danny.naicker@NDEngineering.co.za. — Arts Editor.

Caption: Kobus Moolman will be reading his poetry at a meeting of the Live Poets Society in Westville on June 4. PHOTO: FILE

Article Source: WITNESS (Pietermaritzburg)