Poetrama Magazine Issue 2 April 2021 (2)

Sihle Ntuli is a South African poet and classicist living in Durban.
He holds a Master of Arts degree in Classical Civilisations and has
previously lectured at the University of the Free State.
His poetry was short listed for the DALRO Poetry Prize in 2017.He
most recently became the author of a poetry chapbook Rumblin in
2020. He has had work published in South Africa and across the
African continent on notable journals such as Lolwe, Down River
Road & The Johannesburg Review of books.
T.G: Hi Sihle, it is a pleasure to have you here with us. I'd like to
start off with a somewhat cliche question. But seeing as we have
just come from world poetry day celebrations I feel it prudent to
ask;
What does poetry mean to you? And how has its meaning and
significance to you evolved over the years?
S.N: Thank you for inviting me Takudzwa, I'm happy to be here.
So for me poetry is my attempt to get a better grasp of myself and
to engage with the world around me. Poetry is and always has been
a huge part of my life. For an outsider who does not know me very
well, one might consider me to be obsessed, and I actually was in
my earlier days.
You are quite right to point out that the meaning and significance
of poetry has evolved over the years. As someone who is not very
expressive in the public space I'd say poetry allows me to say
enough without saying too much. More and more I am beginning
to understand the road that I want for myself and certain things
are becoming clearer. I understand now that poetry is probably the
most versatile of genres and there are really so many ways to
approach it. So there is a certain beauty in this kind of possibility
for me.
T.G: You mention being obsessed in your earlier days,
Has age tempered your passion somewhat?
I have noticed with myself how when I first started out, I could
produce three poems in a day without much effort, whereas now I
can take weeks mulling over one verse.
Has your growth made you more cautious in your approach to
poetry?
S.N: I'm still as passionate as ever, but it's just a matter of being
more measured about my approach. In more recent times, it has
become a quite dangerous and delicate balancing act between
quantity and quality. I value quality probably more so than
quantity & I have learnt over the years that a poet does more
damage to their reputation with a low quality poem as opposed to
having a low quantity of poems over a calendar year.
One of the things that I still struggle with is letting go of
the poem at the point of it being complete. I wouldn't
consider it being cautious, but I do feel there needs to be
some sort of merger between the technical side of
composition and intuitive instincts of knowing what a
poem needs. Fine-tuning these things can take time, but it
gets easier if you search for the muse often enough. In my
opinion poetry does require a certain amount of boldness,
for me a good poet is one that is brave enough to challenge
themselves and the reader.
T.G: You released a chapbook last year "Rumblin". When
dealing with your editors and publishers, did you
experience clashes when it came to differences in the
aspects you intuitively wanted to keep in a piece and the
technical aspects that they usually consider. If so? How
did you resolve those issues
S.N: I learnt a lot on my first run, especially since my first
chapbook 'Stranger' was co-edited by two poets. I'll admit
I was a little overwhelmed by them and in some instances
even overpowered. I held on knowing that If had a strong
enough resolve I would come out on the other side with a
published chapbook. Looking back now it probably wasn't
the best atmosphere for a first timer, but I believe I learnt
from that vital mistake of compromising myself and
allowing my core principles to be tampered with just for
the sake of the release.
Communication and justifiable compromise are key but
most importantly I'd want poets to understand that once
they reach the editing process not to sell themselves short,
to back the very ability that got them to the dance
regardless of who is opposite them editing. For Rumblin
my publisher was also my editor Nick Mulgrew. Nick has
overseen some of the more notable South African poetry
collections in recent years and so within reason justifiable
compromises were made
I'm very proud of the work that came out with the
collaboration with uHlanga press. It helped me come to a
realisation that the editing process is an optimization of a
body of work rather than a challenge to ones core artistic
principles. There is room for artistic integrity yes but at
times elements of the artist's ego can also make things
difficult.