Terence Maluleke
AKAA Paris 2025
24 - 26 October 2025
She Was Always More
All that you are,
The many of you,
Sits at this table
Each morning,
Heart opened
A thousand new ways,
Body as tired as a bad story
Told too many times.
But you,
Who wraps herself and everyone she has ever loved
In care
And mercy
And forgiveness,
You show up
Even before the sun does.
You show up when your life is brilliant
And when it is brutal,
And when it asks you for more than before
You give it.
Every morning
At this one table
You start your day
Ready to face this life
As and for many.
U knome Xibhakabaka (She Holds the Sky)
This is how you own your life
From the ground of it
To its fullest sky.
First, gather what matters to you
And make the earth of it:
Gather your name, your love, and your truths.
Give it all weight.
Make it all a thing you can stand on
Or hold onto.
This is how you become someone you trust,
Someone you would not abandon
Even in the darkest of places.
Yes, there will be darkness
And a lot of crawling out of it
On the belly sometimes
With dirt in the mouth and dirt everywhere,
On bruised hands and ego.
But being someone of your own
Takes love
And love blesses things.
Love blesses them all strong,
Gives you a gut to follow,
A mouth that speaks with kindness,
And hands strong enough to hold up the entire sky
Of a new start,
Of a good life,
Of a brave joy.
Yima
We will not die in this
Or any line
Waiting on the world to be good to us.
We will stretch time
And money
And cut distance with our hands
If we have to.
We’ve been stretching things all our lives.
We will get where we are going
And back
On the back of love
And in the arms of duty.
This line won’t kill us,
The next won’t either.
We come from a long line of waiting
And of being good to ourselves.
We come from a long line of not dying.
Hidden Parts
Life also happens here in the quiet
Where you keep parts of yourself
Just for yourself.
You don’t have to wait to be seen,
To be understood,
To be found worthy and good.
From here
Where you have always seen yourself first,
What is looking back at you
Even if you alone see it
Is worth loving too.
Loving Yours
Most days
The gift is as simple
And as miraculous
As breathing this close to someone
You love.
Sure, you can tough out life with people.
You can survive with almost anyone.
But not everyone can soften the world for you.
Not everyone knows the trick of making
The hard of your life less hard.
You soften my life, darling
Most days without being asked
You come in ,
And because it is in the nature of your love
You make it all tender for me.
This is it.
When asked what keeps us
With and for each other
I will always answer:
‘We soft out life together’.
Lamp’s Gaze
Under all this light,
Sitting with all this truth
To keep it short and precious
Let me say this:
Heartache is as human as
A warm body
But so is recovery.
It is a new thing growing,
It is dust brushed off a knee,
It is the courage to close your eyes
Even when you are most afraid of
The darkness of life
Just to pray a new prayer.
Shine
• When was the last time you stepped into your own glory?
• Who wins in the end and what is there to win anyway?
• How many times have you felt your own love?
• What if you weren’t afraid of yourself?
• Isn’t life always about dancing?
• Are you someone you trust?
• What good is dimming all that shine?
• If you could go back, would you be proud to take who you are now with you?
