Zuluboy performing OneLove signature tune at community launch of OneLove in Soweto
The OneLove Poetry Competition is still on.
Launched at the end of April, the OneLove Poetry competition will continue to run until the end of July, when we will reassess to see if reader interest still warrants it.
We will also declare monthly winners, rather than weekly winners as we initially planned. So post your love poems at the end of this post, or email your poems to admin@onelovesouthernafrica.org
So how does the OneLove Poetry Competition work?
“Love and respect are like strawberry in a milkshake, they are one part each of something inseparably tasty and delicious,” says LarryG in his poem on the blog Yesterday, Today and Forever.
This prompted us to ask ourself: What does love and respect mean to the people of Southern Africa, and OneLove web site readers?
Enter the OneLove Poetry Competition!
One of the key messages in the OneLove Campaign is about respect: respect for yourself, respect for your body, respect for your partner, respect for your partner’s rights. We are therefore asking you to share your views of what love and respect mean to you.
Write a poem about love and respect in the comments section at the end of this post. Selected entries will win a OneLove T-Shirt.
Five OneLove T-shirts are up for grabs for 5 lucky readers of the OneLove web site. You have a choice of a red or navy blue T-Shirt.
Terms and Conditions
- The OneLove Poetry Competition was launched on the 20 April and ends at the end of July.
- Monthly winners will be announced at the end of June and July.
- The competition is open to all OneLove readers who are based in the nine countries taking part in the OneLove Regional Campaign (Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe).
- You can send as many entries /poems as you like.
- The poem can be as long or short as you like.
23 Comments
Is this competition still on. I would like to send poems on ONE LOVE theme / message.
Let me know pls.
Warm Regards
Yes, it’s still on. We’re moving the deadlines, because we did not get as many entries as we hoped. So please send in your entries, and tell other poets about it.
Emailed you directly, BTW.
To love is to trust;
Sad, but it’s true
That trust against lust
Can cause you to rue
The day that you met –
Your love.
To trust is to respect
That love will do too,
And without that respect
Trust against lust
Will never stand true –
To your love.
LOVE
By Kingsiley Chidawat
A phrase that lingers in my head
U bring harm
U bring deaf & blindness
However you brings happiness
U unify individuals
U bring joy
U bring peace
Where there is you
Would you come unto me
Thus to harm no-one
But happiness in me
Unify my partner
Come in me
Bring peace of mind
Strengthen our relationship
Purify my affair
Come to my house
Heal deaf & blindness
Save my spouse
Serve my neighbor
Fall upon us
Satisfy my partner
Bring joy at home
No multiple partners
- Because of you my Love –
YESTEDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW
By Agisanang Mokua
Yesterday I told you that
I love you
I told you that you are
My princess
Today, I am telling
You that you are my
future
I am telling you that
Life is nothing without you.
Tomorrow, I will tell you that
I care for you
I will tell you that I
Will never make you cry.
I will tell ou that
You are my moon
My stars
And my sun.
I will tell you that
You are the universe
I will tell you that
No mater what they say or do
I will always love you.
So yesterday, today and tomorrow
I will always love
So please don’t
Pass me by.
Because yesterday I loved you
Today I care for you
And tomorrow I will love
And care for you
From Dying in Excess to Living in Surplus
By Ilva Pieterse
Like a soldier, I have marched through all my battlefields
And slain those beasts who tried to be my masters
In cold blood and feeling.
I have pitied all their frames and laughed
As though remorse was but a learned emotion
And I never went to school.
But it was the work of your mere shadow
That somehow pulled me from victory onto common ground
And started to disarm me.
And through the touch of your bare fingertips
I learned that flowers can grow even on trodden earth
And that hope is like water.
It was the look in your eyes that made me believe tales of long ago
And planted a seed in me that began to grow.
It was through tasting a smile on your lips when we kissed
That love became my master.
Love and Respect – A Rose bush
Love is often said to be blind
If it were then the spread of
Aids / HIV would be much less
Because the one you love would
Blind you from seeing anyone else
As a potenial partner
Love is often mistaken to be that
Feeling of butterflies one gets
When an extremely popular guy goes by
Or when a chick with a skirt shorter
Than trimmed grass passes by
Love to me is like a rose bush
You have to grow it, prune it
And be patient with it
Until it blooms in due season
With love there comes respect
As you prune your rose bush
You learn to respect the thorns
Which are the different views and
Opinions of your loved one
You learn to love and respect them
With respect a greater love can be
Reborn and can flourish with the turn
Of each new season
And with it comes a faithfullness that
Can not be shaken by popular and trimmed grass.
At first we on cloud9.
We call each other 24/7. You serve me the famous English breakfast in bed. I am smitten, I even broadcast to my friends how happy you make me.
There is someone else in the picture. I can smell her and I taste her after kissing you. I think I am strong and I let it slide.
You give me a cold look at the mention of her power over you.Power that kills. You tell me you love me but can’t show me.
I choose to leave before I become a victim of your lust and recklessness. I choose one love
This is so nice.People will change their behaviours.I would also like to say that Trainings should be done so that people who are involved in this campaign ( who are taking role ) should teach people in their ommunities about it.
We should arrange days so that we gather together to discuss what is happenning in our areas.Sharing ideas , information & experiences we have among partners.
Hi, Congratulations to the site owner for this marvelous work you’ve done. It has lots of useful and interesting data.
If you truly love me,
You will respect me enough
to protect me from harm’s paths;
For the road to lasting love is not an easy one
As the thorns of deceit and pain twist and mangle themselves upon the way,
Threatening to cause injury and misery.
But if you truly love me,
You will not allow my feet to tread upon any such obstructions,
Or destruction;
Instead you will clear our path of all danger,
And ensure my safety,
My peace.
And if my love for you is true, and pure;
I will do the same for you,
Caring only for your happiness,
Caring only for you.
@Oblimbillap – thank you. We will pass your congratulations to the OneLove partners.
@everyone – thank you very much for your contributions. Please keep them coming.
Also note that we have begun to showcase the poetry entries on the front page of the OneLove web site. We will notify you individually when your poem is being showcased. And please keep them coming… and tell your friends and colleagues about it.
Love is the blueprint for happiness.
Love can still be like the sunrise in the twilight of a person’s life.
Hi Lamar
I’ve noticed your poems coming in, and just wanted to say thanks for your contributions. Sounds like you have a lot of say about love and respect:-)
When are we going to hear the results?
We were launching one love on 28th october 2009 in Lilongwe at capital hotel in Malawi.
Cheers !!!!
i am to u like i am to my being,
being in this circle i was never forced to be,
how wonderful can this emotion be,
you tell me!
we fall in this trap like we knew,
we don’t regret its kinda fresh and new,
forget the meaning its me and you, its a duo,
we are forever sailing, will never be out of due.
take it slowly with a pace,
its not like we are in a race,
me looking into your eyes i could read a face,
yeah,, you took it all you never left a piece,
but hey um loving it, coz always in my heart i find peace,
knowing soon or later will be sharing a tune while we dancce,
singing to the sky till we reach the moon,
we grew in separate areas, now we are in the same mood,
would you whisper my name, easly i get into your hood,,
i wont live it there,,, until you say i do
and i will forever be happy knowing you love me too,
this is my letter from me to you
surely when you read it your heart will sing too!!
Wat iz luv?i hv bin avoidin diz question since- i dont knw luv.is it da word difficult,iz da function confusing?i dont knw luv.iz da way i feel wen um wit u,da way i smile wen i think of u,da stronger nd heaveir,painful wen u out of ma sight?i dont reli knw luv,iz da guilty i feel wen um wit sum1 els,stupid i get nd jelous i am, wen dey wink @ ya.i dont knw luv.hw strange i feel 4 a stranger nd i make an excuse of “luv at 1st sight”wat iz luv?
when i look in-to the sky/
i see you and me,myb itz a dream
but please dnt wake me,we
fall and hope cravity will catch us/
but believe me boo,will keep rising
dont you like dat too,
we tend to repeat mistakes and always
brake and again mend de pieces,promise
to live,yet you left and still holding my hand
love is a battle dat needs commitment to both/
damn um tired to love,i’l fly away like a dove
and neva return and when you miss me,just
look upon empty skies and say ma name till
a tear dropz!
Woza 2010 !!!!
More works this New Year !!!!
Keep it burning this year.All the best to One Love Lovers.May God Bless You All !!!!
Love is 4 real.
Can I post my poem still or you are only allowed to post poems only when there is a competition?
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