Poetry Potion: What inspires you to write?
Sihle Ntuli: I became fascinated by legacies in general. I was in awe of the idea that a name can be immortalised. I chose writing as a medium because it was most true to me. I do not perform and seldom read my pieces probably due to my introversion.
When I do write it usually comes to me or I write a phrase that I will either end with or begin with then I take it from there. I write mostly about life and what I like and what I don’t like. I am inspired by short films especially the French one’s just because they have clever twists and clever ways of telling stories I try and do the same.
PP: You tend to experiment a lot of with voice and form, why do you do that?
SH: Experimenting is the basis of a large portion of my writing I crash and burn as often as I create the decent pieces. I think it helps that I am not a trained writer nobody taught me to do what I do I even misspell words that sound the same on purpose. I’m still learning to reduce others errors and I am always working on my style of poetry but to me experimenting is key.
In terms of voice and form I do not over think writing I just write with the story in mind that I want to tell and how I’ll tell it. I place a lot of emphasis on imagery and word play. I also do have a lot of figurative language in my work especially in a piece like “Love this lie” I personified sound and made it bite as an example. When I read it now I would have to say it is the most experimental and figurative piece I have ever done.
read the rest in Poetry Potion 2013.01 On Being Human
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