Saddiq Dzukogi

Saddiq Dzukogi is a Nigerian poet and Assistant Professor of English at Mississippi State University. He is the author of Your Crib, My Qibla (University of Nebraska Press, 2021), winner of the 2021 Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry, and the 2022 Julie Suk Award. He is the recipient of numerous fellowships from the Nebraska Art Council, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Pen America, and Ebedi International Residency. His poetry is featured in various magazines including POETRY, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, Poetry London, Guernica, Cincinnati Review, Gulf Coast, and Prairie Schooner.

So Much Memory

–Saddiq Dzukogi

Now he answers to everything that reminds him of her, 

a crib rocking, a circle of faces 

crowing at him. He can neither leave his eyes open 

nor shut them. Splits the night 

walking between two cornfields, striding 

like he’s going for the thing he’ll never find. 

See how he runs his hands over his body, 

how his skin peels. After a night of crying, 

he can feel her limbs in his palms, 

versified, nothing made of flesh; 

nothing made of bone. He opens his mind 

and lets the leaves be his skin 

and lets a song fall inside another song: 

it mimics his daughter’s voice.

From Your Crib, My Qibla (University of Nebraska Press, 2021).

Links

• “Saddiq Dzukogi’s Poetics of Grief” by Peter Akinlabi. Olongo Africa. 28 September 2022.
• “Fatherhood, Memory, and Grief: An Interview with Saddiq Dzukogi“ by Uche Umezurike. Prism International. 25 February 2021.
• “An Interview with Saddiq Dzukogi: Your Crib, My Qibla“ by Michelle Seminara. Verity LA. 27 May 2021.

Media