Dusk in the Morning
It is the eve of her birthday and Sister Grace Dikedi Goit-Semang feels great. She recently took her first vows as a junior nun, a novitiate, and is on track to become a Catholic nun of the order of Daughters of Saint Paul, thus fulfiling her life’s dream. Yet her sunny mood is dogged by […]
The Heart is a Reluctant Nomad
The Heart is a Reluctant Nomad (A novella) Emp-toe’s people are suffering; a series of misfortunes has disturbed the peace. Emp-toe has lost his parents. All he has is his grandparents and a female Facebook friend. Shortly before his initiation, the elders reveal the hidden meaning of his name. In order to find a solution […]
Telling it to the Birds
In its brief history, independent Kenya has gone through many trying and painful times. Some were brief and intense – such as the deaths of Tom Joseph Mboya, Josiah Mwangi Kariuki, Robert John Ouko and the 1982 attempted military coup. Others were protracted and attritionary – such as the Shifta War in what was called […]
I Blame the Sky
Here on a high rock stands Chep-koy, the tall one: His eyes recall a savannah where grasses abound; Where valiant battles with drought were lost and won; Where long-legged raindrops bounded the dry ground. Today he thinks of nothing else but the dear herd, And of the four precious herders that will take over; He […]
Loud Monologues Silent Dialogues
In this second volume of poetry, which has an additional section of experimental prose, the “promise” heralded by Heartbeats of the Mind is realized. Jason Kap-Kirwok emerges as an earnest artist to whom thinking in images and playing with words to appropriately clothe his ideas seems to come effortlessly…the mind is teased into new ways […]
Heartbeats of the Mind
Kap-Kirwok’s collection pulsates with various images which draw from the land, the air, the sea. It reverberates with moods of love, of longing, of need. It encapsulates the very essence of life, whether set in his native land, or in the desserts of Dubai, or the concrete walkways of New York. And is a joyous […]
The Journey
Deep or shallow, it is your choice. Deep, shallow, deep, shallow, it matters to none but you. Consider your Mind and go fishing for Time: How deep can you go, or wish to go? Deeper waters for Angler and Lantern? Or Shallow water for triple fins and seahorses? Our minds – in shallow or deep […]
It is true …but what if?
Formed from the clash of stars … Born in a furnace hotter than the hottest… Forged in and out of a crucible of intense violence … Human-to-human violence seems disproportionate to love But … What if we grab this impulse to violence at its stem and, using STEM, breach its inner defenses What if we […]
It is you – again!?
Chaos – shapeless, irregular uncertainty Behold, it struts, prances, and pirouettes It grabs pain and together they twirl and whirl into a future fierce tornado Oh, teardrop, what happened? I thought you were an orphan You had a twin called pain Now this, a surging ache to burst the banks of my lacrimal lake And […]
WSR’s Historic Win – A tentative reflection by a war-room participant
Counting from the day of declaration of presidential election results, Tuesday November 15, 2022, marks 100 days since that historic win. That is just enough time for a retrospective look at the build up to that historic event. Looking back later to tell the evolving story of Kenya, historians will struggle to capture moments and […]
