In the shadow of Israel’s genocide of the people of Gaza (almost all refugees from the ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Jewish settlers in 1948), this collection, drawn from poems written over several years and culminating in the fire of the current onslaught, captures the agony and suffering of a defenceless people attacked with high precision weapons and a propaganda machine dedicated to advancing US/NATO control over the ‘non-white’ world.
In this, his ninth poetry collection, Kelwyn Sole gives voice to a wide range of concerns, characteristically interweaving the personal with a wider social and political focus. What Is Owed? explores many topics: questions of youth and aging; the complex and illuminating experience of living in contemporary South Africa; commentary on the literary world and on love and other relationships; and the eco-political. In these poems Sole explores themes familiar to readers of his work and also extends them; adding to his already considerable reputation as a poet unafraid to ask difficult questions and wrestle with issues of form and content.
Some months ago Mike Alfred and I decided to compile an anthology of new poems about Joburg. There have been many written in the past but we felt we needed to give a contemporary view (as expressed by poets) given the vast changes in the city over the past twenty-five years – some positive but many negative, reflecting the general impact of ANC rule on a post-apartheid South Africa.
Du Toit draws on his childhood years in Botswana (the Bechuanaland Protectorate, as it was in those
days) to examine questions of language identity and entitlement.
In the shadow of Israel’s genocide of the people of Gaza (almost all refugees from the ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Jewish settlers in 1948), this collection, drawn from poems written over several years and culminating in the fire of the current onslaught, captures the agony and suffering of a defenceless people attacked with high precision weapons and a propaganda machine dedicated to advancing US/NATO control over the ‘non-white’ world. 
In this, his ninth poetry collection, Kelwyn Sole gives voice to a wide range of concerns, characteristically interweaving the personal with a wider social and political focus. What Is Owed? explores many topics: questions of youth and aging; the complex and illuminating experience of living in contemporary South Africa; commentary on the literary world and on love and other relationships; and the eco-political. In these poems Sole explores themes familiar to readers of his work and also extends them; adding to his already considerable reputation as a poet unafraid to ask difficult questions and wrestle with issues of form and content. 
The collection deals with strange and mysterious subject matter such as mysticism,
surrealism, Middle Eastern mythology, and dreams. 
Some months ago Mike Alfred and I decided to compile an anthology of new poems about Joburg. There have been many written in the past but we felt we needed to give a contemporary view (as expressed by poets) given the vast changes in the city over the past twenty-five years – some positive but many negative, reflecting the general impact of ANC rule on a post-apartheid South Africa. 
Du Toit draws on his childhood years in Botswana (the Bechuanaland Protectorate, as it was in those
days) to examine questions of language identity and entitlement.