The Call of the River Nun By Gabriel Okara

Also Read

The Call of the River Nun
By
Gabriel Okara

I hear your call!

I hear it far away; 

I hear it break the circle 

of these crouching hills.

I want to view your face

again and feel your cold 

embrace; or at your brim 

to set myself and 

inhale your breath; or 

like the trees, to watch 

my mirrored self unfold 

and span my days with 

song from the lips of dawn.

I hear your lapping call! 

I hear it coming through; 

invoking the ghost of a child 

listening, where river birds hail 

your silver-surfaced flow.

My river's calling too! 

Its ceaseless flow impels

my found'ring canoe down 

its inevitable course. 

And each dying year 

brings near the sea-bird call, 

the final call that 

stills the crested waves 

and breaks in two the curtain 

of silence of my upturned canoe.

O incomprehensible God! 

Shall my pilot 

be my inborn stars to that 

final call to There 

O my river's complex course?