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Lloyd Machacha, aka Wordsmith, is a new poet who has a heart for the disadvantaged and the heartbroken. His latest anthology titled “Poverty is a Serious Crime” (2015, Pen Featherz Media) seems to herald some protest poetry within, yet you mainly hear the sound of different hearts wallowing in a poverty of love. Occasionally, the poet touches on material poverty and vents anger at the rich and powerful but concerned about relationships, particularly the heartsick.
He seems to be saying breaking someone’s heart is as serious a crime as looking down upon the poor! Machacha believes that ‘ye cannot serve both God and Mammon’ because God is love and Mammon is wealth regarded as evil influence.
Actually in one of his poems Machacha writes, “Poverty and love/are cat and mouse/the presence of poverty chases away love”.
In a brief interview, Machacha said while humanity is blessed to have a powerful human philosophy that states that “a person is a person because of others” our today’s society has lost its tune, hence the discord in relationships and community at large.
“A close look shows that society is now becoming lazy, greedy, mentally-colonised, morally bankrupt and individualistic. It is now survival of the cruel. Hence the material and position poverty we now see all over,” said Machacha.
Poverty, he says, is lack of human virtues and/or fundamentals which include love, compassion, conscience, vision and hard work. “A rich man who lacks compassion to pay fees for an orphan is poorer than a vagrant who shares bones with another vagrant.”
Perhaps the poverty leit motif in “Poverty is a Serious Crime” heavily leans on the poet’s background. Born to poor parents, Machacha pursued his education with a vision to change his situation.
He was exposed to practical experience of poverty. Later, he discovered the Africa Community Publishing and Development (ACPD) which inspired him to stand up for the civil rights of the poor through poetry.
It was his impressive poems which he contributed to ACPD publications that led the editor to nickname him “Wordsmith”.
In the poem “The Fleeing Stride”, the lonely persona of an intelligent but poor student whose confidence has been eaten away by ridicule is vividly cast in the beginning stanza:
“Now sits I alone with my mbira
In this forest’s lowland
Shaped for daydreaming, peaceful dying . . . ”
Theme and technique interlock in the anthology and no doubt the editor who nicknamed Machacha “Wordsmith” could have seen the greater part of the poet’s genius. There is a tendency to break normal syntax in order to achieve internal or end-word rhyme and eventual rhythmic effect.
The poems of heartbreak are the sweetest but painful and are the most shining in the anthology. From this viewpoint then, the title “Poverty is A Serious Crime” sounds too overpowering for an anthology of poems about love and the chaos that happen when love is not there.
Self-pitying is recognisable as it is a running thread in many poems but it somehow secretly adds to the sweetness of the poetry. Machacha mixes modern English with some archaic words such as “thou”, “thee”, “thy” etc, to achieve some romance. After all, self-pity is a silly thing in love, as demonstrated in the stanza: “Lady most adored; it seems I’m no longer in thy heart/Wilt thou please return to thy former commitment to me/For thee reserved a well-furnished bedroom in my heart/ I repeat, please be the pride in me” (Please Don’t Do That To Me). At other times, the poet reverses the strand of idolising love and calls it ‘the evil the shunned shuns’ in the poem “Bitter Sweetness”.
On a different note, a number of new poets of Machacha’s generation seem to have found other platforms far from mainstream publishers whom they accuse of shunning their poetry.
In fact, Machacha said publishers do not see poetry publishing as profitable especially when they (publishers) are operating in a contradicting economic milieu.
“Most established publishers shun poetry particularly from budding poets. Only a few established writers who have become brands are published. The rest receive regret letters. Poetry is still viewed as a preserve for the enlightened and rich, hence its limited reception. However, thanks to new publishers and writers’ organisations that are surpassing most established publishers in supporting poetry, especially from budding poets,” said Machacha.
Born in Highfield, Machacha started with writing motivational articles and event reports when he was a student at Highfield High 1 School. He was then the journalism club chief editor.
After high school he discovered ACPD and began writing poems for their publications which were based on civics.
He later earned a degree and several diplomas in human resource management. Yet his heart is with ACPD where he works with children, identifying and nurturing their talents, especially under ACPD civic education programmes.
So far, he has featured in more than ten ACPD publications, covering rights of the vulnerable.
Some of his poems are found on different blogs and in the anthologies such as “Drums of Africa” (2013, Diaspora Publishers), “Sons and Daughters”, “Cupid” and on blogs. Machacha’s solo anthologies are “Waiting for the Time” and “Poverty is a Serious Crime”, both published this year by Pen Featherz Media. He is also a student of Law at the University of Zimbabwe.
Online Reporter