The Leper’s Fire

Have you seen the leper's fire
flickering upon the mountainside
like an angry eye
on a cold winter night?
 
From 'The Leper's Fire'
 

The Leper's Fire is Mapfumo Clement Chihota's long-awaited second book of poetry, following his acclaimed debut collection Before the Next Song. Chihota's writing is infused with melody and pulsing rhythms, coupled with an effortless ability to play with language, shaping it to his purpose with acerbic humour while simultaneously conveying a deeply serious message. In these intimate, astutely observed poems, Chihota makes striking use of imagery and metaphor, with a wide-ranging emotional register. He invites us to meditate on universal themes -- creative inspiration; social injustice; the dreamworld of sensuous desire; rootedness in ancestral tradition; the need to be attentive to earth and all earth's inhabitants. These are poems that drip "like drops of honey from a hive/ when the bees are sleeping.
 

A collection of poems by Clement Chihota