a.jpg)
There is something of the archer in a poet – letting the arrow fly along
the length of an arm. Horwitz’s poems land quivering in many targets.
Arrows feature in the poems – in San
rock art and in a bow drawn beyond breaking point. The 80-plus poems cover a
wide range – Addis airport, whales in False Bay, hippos. There are odes to
international figures – Neruda, Freud, Kazantzakis – and to South Africans – Abdullah
Ibrahim, Ingrid Jonker, Josiah Madsunya – poignant poems.
Then there are the more overt offering - love poems and those that
express the continued anger of the protest tradition: forced removals,
maintenance courts, Steve Biko, refuges, census. These perhaps find their strength in
performance. Most poems reach their targets.
(Published in Cape Times, September 14,2012)
a.jpg)
