Ode to Mungoshi, the academic who resolves to ‘Live like an Artist’

Elliot Ziwira At the Bookstore
“From the grimness of your deathbed you make stunning discoveries

That you too can die

That there’s no tragedy in dying

And that death is just another of life’s imperatives

Your toothless mouth is a timely reminder that compared to the universe, you’re just a toddler.”

So intimates the artistic persona in the poem “Toothless Mouth” in David Mungoshi’s poetry anthology “Live like an Artist” (2017).

Indeed, Man is only a mere mortal, even though he purports to be the master of the universe and the architect of his destiny.

Like a toddler, he scantly understands himself, yet he believes that the world is there for his poker games.

The late poet who died on Saturday August 29, 2020 was more than an academic, poet, author and actor; he was a colossus.

A larger than life character, David, the younger of the Mungoshi siblings, who are to Zimbabwean literature what the Warner brothers are to motion pictures — simply irresistible, was a humble giant.

Although they are made of the same form, the Mungoshi siblings, David and Charles, are quite distinct in their interpretation of reality, notwithstanding the enthralling presence of metaphors and symbols pervading their works.

“Live Like An Artist”, which was edited by Memory Chirere and published by Bhabhu Books, hoists the reader, like a time traveller into the past, swings him or her back to the present and serenades him/her into the future through an adeptly woven combination of metaphor, symbolism and imagery.

Through juxtaposition, paradoxical presentation of experiences and prodding, the poet reminds the reader of his or her contribution to both his/her own suffering, hopelessness, and happiness as well as how his/her actions bring the same on others.

Love and hatred, life and death, opulence and poverty, youth and maturity, lack and abundance are paradoxes of life which function in juxtaposition as time takes its toll on humanity.

Nothing is new and nothing is old; but all is newly-old.

The artist purveys that in life we live with death, for death, a necessary end, is the beginning of life and that same life ascertains death; such is the nature of things.

As unfathomable and vain as it is, life still needs to be endured through its seasons, perchance a fruitful one avails itself. However, to some there are more winters than summers and to others only summers, so it seems.

Although the use of natural symbols and metaphors persist in “Live like an Artist”, Mungoshi takes a new trajectory that threatens to eclipse his earlier efforts both in content and style.

The poems invite the reader into the writer’s space, which makes it possible for interfaces to be drawn, as the story ceases to be an individual’s, but one that cuts across the national discourse of toil, hurt, frustration, hope and aspiration.

Mungoshi’s poems in this collection are cathartic, therapeutic and soothing to the soul: such powerful musical allure that hinges on the gates of heaven.

Even though the body may be burdened through the inevitable passage of time, and death which always larks in the hoods of one’s dreams, giving one impetus in the hope that even in the Grim Reaper’s cold fingers, one can still fashion his/her destiny.

The evocative and thought-provoking repertoire of interactive episodes nostalgically drags the reader along, jolts him or her out of the present stupor and catapults him/her into the imaginary and fruitful future that only the adept poet can muster and envisage for his/her people.

It is, indeed, through the past that the present can be fashioned for a better tomorrow, only if we “blow the whistle for a foul”, if we follow the artist’s warnings, otherwise “we perish”, (In Our Time).

In the collection, Mungoshi highlights the enervating nature of life on the body as age and affliction take their toll, for we all are “In a Doctor’s Waiting Room”, where expectation is always punctuated by the inevitable and unknown, but the spirit is always in exuberance and raring to go, lending a new lease of life to the emaciated body.

In the anthology, which covers a plethora of thematic concerns, the poet fractures form and style through his tapping into several types of poems, from the ballad, through the haiku to the narrative, descriptive and villanelle, which makes the reading of each of them a new and refreshing experience.

The scorcher has received plaudits galore from such luminaries like Memory Chirere, who has edited it, Professor Robert Muponde, Emmanuel Sigauke and Ignatius Mabasa.

Memory Chirere has this to say: “Live like an Artist” is something else! The poems flow like that D. H. Lawrence poem about a snake at the drinking place . . . In this collection, David Mungoshi transposes his current body pains into poetry, giving you an amazing state of contemplation and observation of life, family, nature.”

Despite his bodily burden, which he later succumbed to on August 29, Mungoshi reflects on vision and memory to give a critical albatross of life as both a bird of prey, and the quarry itself as it succumbs to death — the leveller.

Ignatius Mabasa, whose Bhabhu Books published the anthology, says the poems are great tales that hoist David Mungoshi to the levels of the renowned poet Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), or even surpass him.

On the significance of the artist and the need to emulate him/her as espoused in the title poem “Live like an Artist” Mungoshi intimates to At the Bookstore: “It is my humble submission that if the world lived like an artist, such things as graft, avarice and crime would be things of the past. Artists live in hope sustained by their dreams and the dreams become roadmaps for aesthetic harmony and excellence. Artistes both see and create new realities many of which become fact.”

Hurt sometimes is hilariously rewarding, as to love is to be prepared to bleed in the heart, because bleeding is what gives form to life; such is the paradox of life, and well, love.

Not a newcomer to the literary landscape, Mungoshi seems to be imbued with the metaphors of the sun, dew, flowers and the morning, which pervade most of his works, as the struggle to keep the body and soul together is checkmated by the knowledge of the existence of a supernatural force that somehow puts a damper on individual aspirations.

Nature’s armoury through its seasons, has an effect on the individual’s hour glass; it either breaks or makes him/her. The motifs of the months September, October and June, though contrasting, abet each other in creating an overall sense of hope.

The October heat, which is symbolic of barrenness and suffering, compounds the numbing coldness of June to create a rather “toothless” or hopeless existence. However, the September motif debilitates the sense of loss depicted through use of June and October metaphors as the old wounds are healed, and a new dawn sets in.

Life’s seasons are explored through the eyes of an artist “striving and labouring unappreciated”, but still stoically persevering “cocooned in (his) creative maze/with the promise of a future without haze/For everything comes crawling back to art — the story of creation out of nothing”.

Life is like a musical composition that has its highs and lows and all of us hum in tune or out of tune depending on our individual experiences and moods; as we shuttle from one bar to another in the “twelve bar blues” stories of our existence.

Through conversational language, which makes the poems accessible to a lay reader as to one with a critical eye, the poet creates a touching, hilarious, enthralling and thought-provoking rhapsody of a yearning heart that derives solace in the rising sun, which totters towards the western rim where everything seems to end, and yet it is here that all is said to start.

At the peak of it all fruition appears to be in the offing because of love and hope, but then the dew begins to melt as the sun takes its westward trajectory and starts to fade again, leading to abeyance.

Although the use of natural symbols and metaphors persist in “Live like an Artist”, as is the case in “The Fading Sun” (2009), Mungoshi takes a new mojo that threatens to eclipse his earlier efforts both in content and style.

The reader finds himself/herself participating as one of the characters in “Memories”, “I am a Beautiful Paradox”, “A letter To One Who Deserved Better”, “The Boy from Across the Stream”, “A Poem about Time Going By” and “Thou Art the Man”.

Mungoshi’s NAMA Award winning novel “The Fading Sun” is a touching and thought-provoking rhapsody of a yearning heart that derives solace in the rising sun which totters towards the western rim where everything seems to end, and yet it is here that all is said to start.

At the peak of it all fruition appears to be in the offing, but then the sun begins to fade again and abeyance sets in.

Marriage has never been known as a bed of orchids, and Mungoshi does not pretend that it is such, but he articulates the strains that kill or kindle it.

It is possible, yes that two people can fall in love, marry and remain lovebirds even in the face of adversity, as long as they are tolerant to each other’s foibles, supportive of the divergent dreams that may shape their destinies and remain true to their hearts’ desires no matter what Time brings to their doorsteps.

The institution suffers as a result of deceit, on both parties. Everything seems to be choreographed to suit the pervading set up of social strata which somehow tilt in Mary, the tragic heroine’s disfavour.

Moth, her better half, is more of a clown than a responsible husband who only honours promises when it suits him. Mary, on the other hand, takes to feigning everything, even in the bedroom as a way of getting back at her husband’s ego.

Always driven by the quest to cut a niche for himself on the literary landscape, the young artiste published his first short story in the African Parade’s January issue of 1967, when he was 18, although it was written two years earlier.

Born in 1949, David Mungoshi’s poetic touch found voice around 1965-6 when he wrote lyrics for a friend who played in a Bulawayo band called The Earthquakes.

Always driven by the quest to cut a niche for himself on the literary landscape, the young artiste published his first short story in the African Parade’s January issue of 1967, when he was 18, although it was written two years earlier.

Thus setting in motion a rollercoaster voyage spanning five decades of literary and academic prowess, which saw the immensely talented artist publishing other masterpieces like “Stains on the Wall” (1992) under the pen name Mugango Musandireve, “Broken Dreams and other Stories” (1987), and  a short story in “The Old Man and His Bath”.

Mungoshi also has poems in “The Living Dead: A Group Portrait” in the Kizito Muchemwa edited “Zimbabwean Poetry in English” (1976), “Real Life: An Interpretation” (1976) and “Ghetto Diary and other poems” (2012) published by ZPH.

Go well gentle giant, we are poorer without you, but richer with your contribution to our literary and academic cache. We will keep on striving to live like artists.