“…The struggle of black people inevitably appear in an intensely cultural form because the social formation in which their distinct political traditions are now manifest has constructed the arena of politics on ground overshadowed by centuries of metropolitan capitalist development, thereby denying them recognition as legitimate politics. Blacks conduct a class struggle in and through race. The BC of race and class cannot be empirically separated, the class character of black struggles is not a result of the fact that blacks are predominantly proletarian, thought this is true…”- (Frank Talk Staff Writers in ‘Azania Salutes Tosh’ – circa 1981)
front cover:
Tosh by Steve Gordon
back cover:
Kippie by Basil Breakey
Blood Skin Bones is a poetry collection that covers diverse sub themes, from nostalgia to world politics to the admiration of the natural world to deep self-introspection. But the dominant packaging theme of this collection is mortality. Mortality of the body, the mind and the soul.
It interrogates the perennial wrestling between a human entity and mortality. It dissects the conversation between the two entities. It embraces the reality that each day our bodies are accumulating limits and shortcomings. This work does not only look at mortality as error or tragedy. It acknowledges and embraces the fact that mortality is a necessary engineering of nature that cannot be evaded.
This connection does not only limit itself within the realm of abstract and philosophical interrogation. It does not only lock its lens onto the inner world of the author. It also flips its lens outward towards societal ills and global politics. This is where it pokes at the tragedies of Gaza/Palestine. The toothlessness and deterioration of the United Nations as it fails to intervene and apply its resolve to deal with the warmongering leaders of certain countries.
This body of work also expresses the challenges and concerns of the author himself as he is going through a difficult time with health challenges.