The Faults of the Superficial 

In Terminal Maladies, Okwudili Nebeolisa’s poems of care, reminiscence, and longing are imbued with vulnerability and clarity. However, the expressive lucidity does not fully compensate for the lack of depth.  

In the literary world, particularly in Nigeria, it is often said that the hardest task of the poetic imagination is the happy versification of our happy experiences. Yet, time and time again, the realities of life and imagination reveal a brooding truth: that this romantic notion, elevated to conviction, is just as valid—or perhaps even more so—for the opposite claim: that the gloomy versification of our even gloomier experiences is a greater challenge. In Okwudili Nebeolisa’s debut poetry collection, Terminal Maladies, the preceding premise resonates with an air of irrefutability. This is not due to the poet’s inability to express himself—across these 41 poems of care, reminiscence, and longing, he undoubtedly does. Though sad and melancholic throughout the book, Nebeolisa’s expressions often feels weighted toward empirical narrative, relegating poetry to a secondary role.

Terminal Maladies is Nebeolisa’s intimate recounting of time spent with and apart from his mother, who lived with cancer ‘in her thigh for twenty-seven years,’ as described in the poem ‘Nomenclature of My Mother’s Name’. She passed away on 23 July 2023. The book is divided into three sections—‘Home’, ‘Abroad’, and ‘After’—each as reflective of its theme as the clearing of the cloudy sky after rainfall. Having left Nigeria for the United States in 2021 for his graduate education, Nebeolisa uses the first section, ‘Home’, to reflect on the moments shared with his mother at home as her illness took a lethal turn. The ‘Abroad’ section is filled with longing, particularly in Nebeolisa’s imaginings of home, shaped by the necessary circumstance of his travel abroad. The final section, ‘After’, offers a poignant, universal meditation on the memories of his mother following her death...

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