South African poet Manthipe Moila releases debut collection ‘Rootbound’

In the history of poetry, never before have there been so many talented and diverse poets across the globe who are existing and writing at one time. There are so many that they can remain undiscovered, joyously found or unfortunately forgotten in the digital landscape. Thankfully, in “Rootbound,” the arresting poetry debut by South African poet Manthipe Moila, we behold a stunning collection. The poems compel a reader’s curiosity forward, line after line, page to page and cover to cover. This is a serious new voice that is cautiously youthful and wise beyond measure. From South Africa to South Korea, themes of home and escape and absence and presence buoy the poems with light and levity through a canopy of shadows. Poets tend to have personal imagistic cosmologies like urban topography, mountains and seas, or clothes and tools; for Moila, the world of botany blossoms throughout her work. In the poem “7 ways of looking at the story of us,” we encounter this couplet: “Once plucked from its stem, the flower cannot return alive” The couplet encapsulates an emotional and psychologic

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