bewketu seyoum

December Review and Happy New Year

Well, the three months since starting Proletarian Poetry certainly went quickly. December was a bit of a quieter month in terms of number of posts but there were great poems, some of which spread across continents and covered such themes as gender, family, friendship, poverty, and pacts with the Devil.

bewketu seyoumFirst up in December were three short poems from Ethiopian poet, Bewketu Seyoum‘s “In Search of Fat”. I was introduced to Bewketu’s translator, Chris Beckett at The Shuffle, which is the last Saturday of the month in the Poetry Cafe. Seyoum’s poems, trace the history of Ethiopia and the struggle of its people to find freedom and peace. (more…)

In Search of Fat (and other poems) by Bewketu Seyoum

bewketu seyoumAll countries change, it’s just some countries change more than others and sadly most often because of ‘these’ others. Ethiopia is one such country and the featured poems here by Bewketu Seyoum, reflect many of these changes and the search for a more positive future.

The first, ‘In search of fat’ (the title poem of his pamphlet) could however, be a story common to many developing countries who have endured authoritarian rulers, whether by colonisers, or as with Ethiopia by their own leaders, often aligned to one side in the Cold War. So in the poem Bewketu directs his ire at fat cats throughout the world. (more…)