New writing

Fiction and prose by established and emerging authors. Send your poetry or fiction to New Writing at skryfwerk@litnet.co.za to be considered for publication on LitNet.

Please note that work previously published in print or on any online media platform will not be considered for selection.

Hide and seek

Neels Ackroyd 2014-02-04

"Hiding without a soul
unidentifiable
leaving not a breadcrumb
typing as a dumb
amplifying its thoughts
mostly on politics, religion and its Gods
The hiding troll with no soul"

Stargazer

Heidi Henning 2014-01-28

"She looked up, nightly
She looked through the crystal stars
Those gossiping stars
Not giving them any attention
She looked past them, seeing only her pain
Reflected back."

The loud silence

Heidi Henning 2014-01-28

"An unexpressed, swallowed roar
The confluence of a rushing water flow
Suffocated breath"

Lemon people

Heidi Henning 2014-01-21

"I crouch next to her. It smells like moss and lemon verbena. I run my finger over the lemon man. He has freckles from the dust."

Safely saved

Celia Claase 2014-01-21

"In this age when sharpening a pencil has become abrasive and taking up a chisel is absurd we choose to donate our fantasies and ideologies, our conspiracies and our poetry to electronic memories."

Calm

Heidi Henning 2014-01-10

"One small drop of this quiet
Falling from the dappled shade, carried by the breeze"

Song for Aung (For Aung San Suu Kyi)

Babatunde Fagbayibo 2014-01-10 "An ill-defined oasis
within which freedom
finds an identity,
shape,
hue,
texture,
language."

Truth dies

Babatunde Fagbayibo 2014-01-10 "Truth dies
at the doorstep of fragmented "truths",
and the jostle for supremacy
becomes the norm."

The human species

Celia Claase 2014-01-10

"We entered this solid plane like asteroids
on a mission to kill without thought

So we domesticated the buffalo for an easy
merciful cut
befriended wolves to help us sniff rabbits ou"

Whimsical generator

Heidi Henning 2013-12-04

"You and I have a complicated relationship
Like a long unbalanced equation
Requiring a clear mind, in the heat-fatigued night"

I stared

Chris Taljaard 2013-12-04

"I stared
at the stark
naked
lamppost,
grim
and felt the light
begin
to dim."

Through realms of scattered verse

Chris Taljaard 2013-11-27

"Through realms of scattered verse
I lead processions in a pale hearse
of images of penultimate
rapture"

Netpoets 2.0

Rentia Bartlett-Mohl 2013-11-20 Write a poem with the theme “the internet”. Use the internet as a medium to look at how we read and write poetry in the digital age.

Birdsong

Heidi Henning 2013-11-20 "Long into the afternoon shadows
As I search through the dark pool of sounds
for the same lost call."

Sunset

Heidi Henning 2013-10-29 "The rays of light have become irresponsible
They sparkle with a slightly more subtle shine"

Hello there, kettle

Chris Taljaard 2013-10-23

"Kettle, could you forgive me
if I were to call you black?
You see, in you lies my story
reflected, burning, back"

Should this catharsis contain some portent

Chris Taljaard 2013-10-23

"Should this catharsis contain some portent,
purport or potential politick;
should it conform to some shape and indent-
ation to be poetic rhetoric?"

Loss

Heidi Henning 2013-09-18

"The heart carries loss like a soldier
Stoic, strong, continuing to function"

Wind Cathedral

Heidi Henning 2013-09-18

"This place is quiet
silence dominates the days
before sunset, a breeze begins to move the sand"

Chemotherapy

renee 2013-09-11

"Go with the flow, he says
Who says? He, he who dishes the dirt,
poison for the pores, the nerve endings, the brain"