Home » Poems » Best » Mpho Leteng » Best Mpho Leteng Poems

Best Poems Written by Mpho Leteng

Below are the all-time best Mpho Leteng poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Mpho Leteng Poem

Hurled Into the Depths

cloaked in the dark waves of a Kachikau winter night;
the last faint gleam of hope glide,
scared out my wits, no one by my side,
who can i trust?
even my own shadow abandons me when i am in darkness!

My presumptuous heart deceived me!
hurled me into depths deeper than Sheol,
i have become psychologically lifeless
the path behind me is full of broken dreams.

death drenched my thoughts in red,
my soul is bald and filled with ashes of a mind burned to crisp,
the pain of my future has no cure!

a broken soul in pulsing pain,
the forces of selfishness and selflessness whip my conscience;
life beats me like a constant dream...
i have fallen prey of my own evil deeds.

where is the road to the home of light?
where is the road to the house of righteousness?
Lord you disciplined me...
and i have been disciplined like an untrained calf
i ask for your forgiveness...

Details | Mpho Leteng Poem

I Think You Are My Soulmate

Through a ritual pronounce to re-awaken my soul;
i drummed close your burning heights,
the lambent flames of my cursed voice warmed up your heart,

In my quest to culp my solitary land...
to pave my future with granite and crude sand,
lovage clay and molten copper band
i touched you!
i loved you...
i think you are my soul mate!

Like the rolling waves of a dream without an end 
you keep calling at my grave,
calling me by names i never knew i have been named
calling me by former names!
i think you are my soulmate

Details | Mpho Leteng Poem

Alone In My Wakeful Sleep

In the quiet of the night, my thoughts wander,
Like shadows dancing in the moonlight,
Lost in a maze of uncertainty and fear,
I seek solace in the whispers of the night,
Hoping for a guiding light to appear.
Alone in my wakeful sleep I ponder,
The weight of existence heavy on my chest,
Yet in the darkness, there's a glimmer,
A flicker of hope that refuses to rest.
I am a traveler in this realm of dreams,
A wanderer in the vast expanse of my mind,
Searching for answers that may never come,
But still, I journey on, leaving doubt behind.
Alone in my wakeful sleep I wonder,
Embracing the unknown with open arms,
For in the depths of solitude, I find,
A strength that shields me from all harms.
So I'll continue to roam this inner landscape,
Exploring the depths of my being,
Alone yet not lonely, in my wakeful sleep,
Finding peace in the midst of this unseen freeing.

Details | Mpho Leteng Poem

When the Earth Bleeds

WHEN THE EARTH BLEEDS

Fights abound like Aboriginal tales,
Memories of words that prophecy unveils,
No fixed abodes in psychiatric beds,
Living in pain, waiting in vain,
Life shattered, broken, a shadow's dread,
When the earth bleeds.

Prey to destructive social evils,
Within our hearts, death's bitter sequel,
Acrid smell of worm-worked corpses,
Sun bleeding out, vestiges endorse,
Death's dress on the surface,
Blood fills the earth, metallic essence.

Beware the blackness of the heart,
Baldness accentuates a cracked part,
Cloudiness within the mind's maze,
When the earth bleeds, in endless daze.

Details | Mpho Leteng Poem

Before Long, I Am Gone

(When I am due)

As the clock pulses impulsively to tag time along,
All day long I load up the mounting hums like a banquet song,
My head stuffed still, thronged nuisance teeming long,
Like the tolerance of an idealist when aspirations prolong,
But soon I may not be here or there_
I might be nowhere else to be found!
Before long I’m gone, when mine story told right but wrong,
And all I had gone too, gone forever gone!
Aside from a memory of me that rests ever like a folk song’
Said to young'uns of a generation to another.
But when I am due, keep local the chest to lay rest my simple skins in,
Forget not to dig deeper a deeper hole I can fit in,
And weep not my grant for thy placid rest
But remember me as of ages ago and days gone long,
When we’d go off at a tangent along;
Thy page- dyed pieces among
The rest I have known a poem.

Before long I’m gone
To put my feet up in a different realm
Is it the noble milieu where the waters are calm?
And God’s earnest hands basin me like an innocent child
Or is it the ever burning hell
Where I will blaze with vile flames like the wicked?
Right now I’m not any right to gum myself to any,
But when I am due, one of two roads will claim me fairly,
And when I’m gone, let not sorrows fleece your jolly living,
For life on earth is none much than a transient giving,
One day you should see the valid reason of your time here
And choose your ways the better way.
And choose your ways the better way before long
And choose our ways the better way before long!

When I am due and my tale told to ears sharp,
When I am too thin to feel the beat of my heart
My tale attains unsullied ears like a melody line from a retiring harp,
And though the symphony unplugged
My song plays on still as I scream in silence top,
And my voice louder than loud sound unheard still,
I try to wake up to the pace of sound as it drifts in the air space
But time is ticking on the hour glass,
So let me gone if I be_
Even if I cross the line at the crossing like a P.E. race winner,
I’ll be due as an outcast, who knocked on the closed doors untiringly,
I wasn’t too heavenly, like everybody else I was only a sinner,
So let me gone if I be forever gone;
To a state where the body is too heavy,
A place where only the soul can enter…
And my ending then only God shall conclude!

The writings of Donald Kuutsi (Zimbabwe) and Mpho Leteng (Botswana)
Between the fiery panes ‘15

Details | Mpho Leteng Poem

What Cause, Then

What cause to thrust me off my narrow road?
When truth, factual actual truth unto me bestowed,
In my inner deep’s deepness such sowing sowed,
What cause then, to have me in hysterics of unknown kind?
Far-off the clandestine black where my road I cannot find,
What cause then, to submit me not here?
Blind me blinded, stray me astray ‘cross clouded roads and rails untaken,
What cause then, Take me far forth and far hind,
Dare take me home faraway far and leave me far behind?
What tale told untold to my furthest mind?
A story I would rummage around and not find,
If stories consigned to me all on form defined,
What cause therefore, untruths familiar not to mankind
Will slay me gone as assigned?

What out-of-the-way cause graze me grazed a lot,
Undo me loose from the genuine ties of my destiny,
What greater sin than a man’s blasphemy?
If any to consume my inward person like the vile when Hades burn still,
If I know me well and I’m without doubt for real
Of how I would feel at the triumph of mine deal
What cause to trade the whole shebang, the lot I labored for?

If with a sweeping heart I sow firstly this seeds,
If too dearly deeds I give arms long,
That will make tomorrow a better day to gift infancy’s years the sunshine song,
For none cause, then has a better bottom than smiles of youth,
Than a walk of freedom,
Than the joy of the Lord,
And the delight of man in reassurance of God’s care for,
What cause then to rub in secular pleasures and hell a forthcoming?
If with this work abused hands I labor like man of roused moral terming
To concept a restored age bracket, a lot on the mend.

What cause, then?
Will divest me of my followed path into wilds deep
What cause to collect me into the sickening heap?
Tow me for its keep into grounds steep, 
For all I will sow is the same I will reap!
And my life then end fairly, and I’ll go to sleep
In the earnest hold of my ever alive redeemer!

Details | Mpho Leteng Poem

I Will Not Fall Apart Or Wither

I will wing higher than eagles soar;
I will speak; I will rumble and roar,

Fear will not conquer me,
I will not kneel and say sorry, 
I will not irk my heart with doubt,
I will fight to the end.

I will not flee;
I will stay here with thee,
I will stand for right
I will not run; I will creep towards light

I will not compromise;
I will assert myself to the best of value,
I will never give up,
I will not be intimidated
Or bothered much of what people suppose of me,

I will not fall apart and die
Like roses ridded of a pass to water and sunbeams,
And I see them once beautiful;
But now floppy and wilting 
And their splendor bear away as they waste away!

I will rise like an army of many
With much vigor and zeal,
With the strength of mind to take to bits any obstacle.

I will rise like a new hope,
That seizes a vexed dwelling and bright out the dark,
I will chorus my forlorn song in lurid thuds like a dog’s bark
And you will hear me sing!
As my singing feasts to your depths like a debauched malady

Details | Mpho Leteng Poem

Will I See a New Born Day

Will I see a new born day?
A new born day soaring at its best from dawn’s wake,
Perking up the obverse of summer’s gravid clouds,
And as much as necessary bring light to the world…

Will I see the virgin moon flouting heavens to set alight a new day?
Will I see much of a cherubic fall, drops less intermittent?
Rain! Rain, rain for an African to plait harrows across soils blest enough to give life to crops,

Will I see myself better than reflections on that cheval glass?
Highly motivated and self-driven indeed
To rather die on mine feet than live on my knees,

Will I hear lies and false truths a little less enough?
Politics and blares too; 
Will I sing heaven shall wait when old passions shudder?
Love dipping minds and hearts with love that truly loves
Will I see all that?
Love and much love in return for love and much much love.

Will I beyond doubt ingratiate myself with the poets?
To see poets write new poems anew
Or poets write old poems and poems new,
I still wonder and wander still…
Is there beyond today any possible tomorrow?

Details | Mpho Leteng Poem

Mourning light in shared despair

We laid hands on your empty corpse
We stretched hands to touch your soul
We cried sympathetically looking through your grave
We cursed the provocation that sounded your death knell
But again we are here and mourning
Crying for our beloved friend

In the depths of sorrow, we find solace
In the darkness, we seek the light
The memories of you linger in our hearts
A reminder of a life once bright

A fate worse than death, a loss profound
But in our grief, we are bound
Bound by love and shared despair
Bound by the memories we all bear

So we mourn, we weep, we remember
For in our hearts, you will live forever
A fate worse than death, we survived
But in our love, you will always thrive.

Details | Mpho Leteng Poem

Rest Peacefully O Dear Friend

(In loving memory of Thokozile)


A dark cloud crumpled into our quietened attentions,
Caving in deeply into the deeper ends of our calming wake,
We feel the onerous fall of its falling into our minds deep
And it’s the loss of yet another substantial part, pleasantest among womenfolk;
Her gates board up on us, we may no more see her-
We loved her well, but God loves her best,
And what he once gave he has now taken!

Though she was too soon to be_
Gone forever gone
We hark back to reality’s cruelty
Take in the mordant taste and remember her in the best ways we can,
A friend-colleague-fellow
A sister
Mother_

Meanwhile she is a step ahead into the path where mortals tread
Carrying on with an upright will still
We would call her by a familiar name Dodo;
Forever alive in our hearts
Rest in peace Thokozile!