"Gafieza's collection, esoteric, is very clearly the work of a reader who loves writing. Her use of language is deft and this lends a delicate hand even to the turbulence felt by the speaker in her poems. Presented as meditations, we are taken on an internal journey into the writer's psyche as she navigates her place not only in the world, but in establishing her voice. On one hand, she finds herself as overwhelmed by this process: 'These poems are not about me,/It is just an exploration of my emphatic need/To pen circumstance and deceit.../The poems are never to me./Have I lost my own company?' But on the other, the very unpredictability of the ocean of language is her playground: 'It feels safe here: safe to cry, safe to speak to the winds...It feels safe here, the waves crash into me.' The beautiful sketches and images are an added pleasure and guide in each of the four sections of the collection. As suggested within, it is clear that this poet's "Life is an act of faith".

Siphokazi Jonas, Poet and Performer