Dabetswe Natasha

A closeted writer for many years, I have finally started publishing and posting my work. I am currently active in an online writing community at The Writ, although I'm on sabbatical from its publication. I am actively reading my poetry at Dalva bar in the Mission district of San Francisco, as well as the 16th and Mission Mic-less Open Mic.

Though I experiment with various styles of writing, I find my strengths in the ability to paint broad pictures with very little paint and to draw out complexity within simplicity. I enjoy playing with words, double entendres, vagueness, and metaphors. At times, I get playful, while at other times, my emotions are raw. I enjoy snapshot perspectives, taking a moment at a time to reflect upon. I come from a background of Psychology. Cross-cultural perspectives interest me greatly, so do existentialist issues as well.

I am also deeply influenced by David Usher's lyrical and musical styles. Though my works have been compared often to Emily Dickinson and once to Dorothy Parker, my own personal style is distinctively intimate, honest and reflective, with a touch of starkness and sentimentality in my complexity within simplicity. My focus is on the moment and fragments of whole, a literary photography to a certain extent, yet my works come around in full circle.

Though many of my work are free verse that are short pieces, I also like to let my creativity flow and produce longer poems or pieces with purposeful forms. From time to time, I try out rhyme, meter, and syntax. No matter which style I approach my writing, there is always a sense of rhythm--one that comes from my heart.