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Wayne Chiridza, Showbiz Reporter

Up-and-coming Bulawayo based poet Kudakwashe Victor Shoko has been scouted by a Russian media house for his poetry.

After starting his own charity Pukkalife Global Charity Foundation and self-marketing his poetry on social media platforms he caught the attention of WTM Media House based in Russia.

The organisation seeks to promote and market young talented poets from around the world and already has people from Germany, Russia, South Africa and recently added the poet from Zimbabwe.

“I had just been posting my poems through my blog and other social media platforms and as a freelancer I knew my poems would reach people out there but being scouted by people from Russia is something I never saw coming,” he said.

The new deal has the young lad over the moon as he said his work has gotten recognition and he will be working hard to continue growing himself.

“This is a dream come true and it has shown that everything that I had been doing was not for nothing. All my hard work has paid off and my poems have reached the other side of the world, I now also have to work hard,” said Shoko.

Known for his poem Priya My Daughter which was one of his first publications he said he writes about the girl child as his mother is the centre of most of his poems.

“I draw inspiration from a number of subjects and the prime one is my mother. She raised me on her own and I feel it’s upon me to make her proud, that’s the greatest thank you I can give her. It’s what fuels me to always strive and give it my all when I set on anything as a contributing result, that’s why most of my poems are about her,” he said.

Writing gave the poet closure and consolation, he said, and he started releasing his poems on his blog and other writing platforms.

“I discovered that writing didn’t only give me pleasure, it gave me solace as it gives me the ability to create my own world, my utopian realm. I started publishing on the internet through my blog and started getting my audience and the support I got was overwhelming and this has taken it further,” said Shoko.

The young poet is known as The Poetry Battery which is his stage name as he wants to be the battery that powers up poetry.

“I called myself ‘The Poetry Battery’ because in as much as it may sound like a trumpet is being blown, I want to be the battery that fuels the poetry circle. Shakespeare didn’t do it on his own and I cannot and will not do it on my own, I want to do the best I can in making poetry great again,” he said. – @waynecas