Poetry

An acceptance speech in verse upon appointment as inaugural Commonwealth Poet Laureate Delivered at Commonwealth Foundation, Marlborough House, June 12,…

Long before there was AI, there was AI: Ancestral Intelligence.   Rhythm, repetition, the sacred three, patterns grandmothers taught us …

This poem was written in conjunction with the Commonwealth Foundation's call for participation to respond with a creative ‘thread’ to…

A poem released to mark the one-year countdown to the 2026 Commonwealth People's Forum. Five fingers spread across our global…

The Commonwealth Poet Laureate gives voice to personal histories and narratives of those who might otherwise remain unheard and invited…

A poem based on the Commonwealth Charter Illustration by Caleb L. Viljoen Aerial roots drop from branch to soil, each…

This poem is best viewed in a web browser. Close your eyes   I see a woman unwrapping a papered…

Memorial    Sacred to the memory of Harry St. George Galt, Acting Sub-Commissioner of the Western province who was murdered…

Perhaps the thing that makes us powerful  is also the thing that makes us invisible.     The body, a house…

birthdays are usually private parties   where my mother empties her whole heart     one of the few occasions she cries …

advice to self—    and to leaders  in times of crisis  and ordinary times:    you have no answers  not…

This poem is best viewed in a web browser.

Nothing to read here: just the truth         of a man living in a world desperate   to misunderstand him. When I told Hassan  …

​​The not enough-ness ​​​  of dust bites through Lagos, surrounding us like a target.  suffering repeats its skin on the nation, …

I bring her to meet you   when I'm sure no one else is coming.  Still, I scan the scrawls in…