Cemetery of Sages
written by: Leonard Ifeanyi Ugwu, Jr.
@UgwuJr1
I mirror myself in books,
In idleness, I numb the key of fetish looks,
I hide my shadows on paper flowing with images of blur blood,
My heart wobbles in the water of the flood.
The rhythmic flow of poetic words is buried in my thought
But when I sit to crest them, they disappear from sight
Like Nigerian light.
Darkness burns the night, empty is the mind I sought.
As I dwell in the cemetery of sages,
Overflowing with thoughtful pages,
Wandering what wobbled the wanton water
Where I swim without wetness and any sound of pitter-patter
In this cemetery of sages, I see bard skull
Micro Shakespeare’s skeletal skull.
I now have fathers; I drink from the tomb of bald thoughts
Now my pen dances on paper and my ink fingers their thoughts.
LEONARD IFEANYI UGWU, JR., a fellow of the Ebedi International Writers’ Residency, is a Lecturer and Researcher at the Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He holds a Ph.D in International Relations and a Postgraduate Diploma in English and Literary Studies. His poems have appeared in a variety of prestigious journals, anthologies, magazines, e-zines and websites around the globe like Spillwords Press, Brittle Paper, Oddball Magazine, Atunis Poetry, among others. He authored Echoes of the Invisible (AuthorHouse, USA, 2017), Echoes of Bullets (Emotion Press, Nigeria, 2021), which was nominated for the 2024 Akachi Ezeigbo Prize for Literature. His literary prowess earned him the Best Poet of the Year awards in 2012 and 2013 from the Caritas University Literary and Arts Association. His debut play, Babel and Boys, was published in 2023 by the Phoenix Award Books (PABPUB) and premiered at the University of Nigeria’s Arts Theatre in 2024. Leonard is a native of Nkalagu Obukpa in Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area of Enugu state, Nigeria.
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