Poet vows to touch the hearts of many

Shingirirayi Mugodi

CHINHOYI-BASED poet, Tendai Simbi, says his wish is to change people’s lives through poetry.

Speaking to H-Metro, the 24-year-old said he wants to share his gift with other people, which explains why he decided to be a published poet.

“I have always had a liking for poems and writing since I was in primary school.

“Being a poet is a blessing from God and I want to be able to share that gift with other people.

“As a poet, you are free to express your feelings, because poetry is about expression of feelings to the society, through keeping the paper stained with ink, and it helps people in making it possible for them to express their own feelings as well,” he said.

His love for poetry has been there for a long time.

“My passion to be a published poet began way back but it was not taken seriously because I was a child.

“In 2021, I published my very first poetry anthology titled ‘Laughter of Sadness’ with my brother Kudakwashe Simbi and Larry Lomptey from Ghana, who are both well known published poets and writers,” Simbi said.

He was inspired by his brother to be a poet.

“My brother is my inspiration.

“Besides that, I am a passionate poet, who is eager to express societal matters through penning them down,” he said.

He highlighted he has gone through a lot as a poet but managed to pull through.

“People have misinformed beliefs about poets, they think that the only real poets are people like Shakespeare, Blakes, among others,” he said.

“There is a lot of piracy when it comes to poetry.

“People use your work but do not credit it and that has led to a lot of poets’ work not being known by many people.

“As a poet, I also struggle, in terms of financial support, to publish more of my work.

“I cannot count the work I have done so far. There are a lot of both published and unpublished work which will be published soon.

“‘Laughter of Sadness’, ‘Essential Voices’ which I wrote with other poets countrywide, ‘Zimbolicious Volume 6 Anthology’ and ‘Swerokuvhiya Nyama Yemusoro’, which I wrote with various poets, are part of that catalogue,” he told H-Metro.