Synkroniciti Is thrilled to welcome back poet Jonathan Chibuike Ukah, currently residing in the UK, with two poems about reconciliation and recovery in relationships. “A Second Blooming,” assumes responsibility for a lost friendship and expresses hope for restoring it.
“Forgive me for throwing these stones at you,/ when all you did was to come close to help me./ Let’s then cast out this nightmarish Jonah in our ship,/ allow the soft, sweet and refreshing wind to prevail/ and give ourselves the lightness to bloom again.”
The second poem, “When We Were Angels,” expresses the idea that mending a broken or lost relationship requires us to meet each other in the present. If we can achieve reconciliation, we can remember together and find the sweetness of our shared past, but living in the past will not help us reconcile.
“I must tell you now that I have moved on;/ look for me in the old cave of leaves and grass,/ and you will not find me; in the open fields of dust,/ the ash of rodents and cockroaches will greet you;”
Jonathan combines pragmatism with a romantic tone, creating a striking vision of existence. His poetry is beautiful–full of alliteration, sibilants, dynamic rhythm–and yet he does not shy away from the ugly and rough elements of life. It is these vulnerable elements that give his poetry power. Beauty is not created by air-brushing our experience but acknowledging its rawness.
Read Jonathan’s rich poetry in Synkroniciti’s “Recovery” issue, available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Jonathan Chibuike Ukah is a Pushcart-nominated poet living in the United Kingdom. His poems have been featured in Unleash Lit, The Pierian, Propel Magazine, Atticus Review, The Journal of Undiscovered Poets and elsewhere. He won the Alexander Pope Poetry Award in 2023 and was the Editor’s Choice Prize Winner of Unleash Lit in 2024. He was shortlisted for the Minds Shine Bright Poetry Prize 2024 and the Second Poetry Prize Winner of The Streetlights Poetry Prize in 2024.