What is owed?

A gate opens: I do

not know whether

my task is to close it,

or go through.

Kelwyn Sole was born in Johannesburg in 1951 and was educated there and in London. He worked as a school teacher in Botswana, managed an education programme in Namibia and designed and oversaw the writing of a set of History of Africa books for an anti-apartheid N.G.O. in Johannesburg. Thereafter, he spent 30 years at the University of Cape Town, lecturing on African and South African literature, Seventeen- Century English poetry and Western and global modernisms in the Department of English Language and Literature; eventually becoming the De Beers Professor. Sole has written many critical articles on South African and postcolonial literature in local and international books and journals, and his poetry has been widely anthologised. Critical articles of his have won the Thomas Pringle and AA Mutual Life/Vita Awards. His first collection of poetry The Blood of Our Silence won the Olive Schreiner Prize and his seventh, Walking, Falling the South African Literary Award (SALA) for Poetry. His most recent collection Skin Rafts was shortlisted for the National Institute for the Humanities & Social Sciences (NHSS) Award. Over the years, individual poems have won the DALRO, Thomas Pringle and Sydney Clouts Awards. What Is Owed? is his ninth collection of poetry.