Austin Bukenya

Austin Bukenya Poems

Austin Bukenya Biography

Born in Masaka, Southern Uganda, he went to high schools around Kampala and Entebbe and was a first-class graduate of the University of East Africa (Dar es Salaam) in 1968. He also studied at universities in Madagascar and England, and took his higher degrees at Makerere and Kenyatta Universities. He has taught languages, literature and drama at Makerere University in Uganda and at universities in the United Kingdom, Tanzania and Kenya since the late 1960s. He also has held residences at universities in Rwanda and Germany. Bukenya is also a literary critic, novelist, poet and dramatist. An accomplished stage and screen actor, he was for several years Director of the Creative and Performing Arts Centre at Kenyatta University, Nairobi.)

The Best Poem Of Austin Bukenya

A Dancer's Challenge

Figure of vigour, vibrating in every fibre
Fiery fusion of finesse and vim
Fast as light across the vast arena
I fear as you veer towards my seat
Vaulting without a fault upon
The volleys of flute and drum
And fiddle and vaunting lyre
Now feigning love, now vanity, now folly
You vary your step like a visiting fairy
Surveying a frenzied field of faces
Feasting upon your feline flow
And vowing unfettered love for you
I view with envy what only a few can even dream
A vital vase abashing my sluggish shape like a farce
Though feverish with a voracious desire
Can I accept your ferocious call to dance?

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