INVOCATIONS OF THE WORD BY NIYI OSUNDARE

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INVOCATIONS OF THE WORD 

(to be performed with full musical accompaniment)

In the Beginning was not the Word

In the Word was the Beginning

Unwind the wind

Give rapid legs to the crouching leaf;

The horse of words has galloped

Through clouds, through thunder, through roaring waters...

Throw open the door of your ears

Araba ponmbe ponmbe ponmbe

Araba ponmbe ponmbe ponmbe*

The Word, the Word, is an egg

From the nest oof hawk and dove

Its shell the sheath of anger's sword

Its yolk compostbed of bile and boon

The Word, the Word, is the woodpecker's beak

Which rattles the jungle of silence

The cat's eye which pierces the garment of night

The Word, the Word, is the fearless symmetry of zebra heights

The fiery hooffall of eloquent horses

The Word, the Word, is the armpit of stone

The groin of nodding marble

The Word, the Word, is the madness of the moon

The canine fury of barking tides

The Word, the Word, is the milky teeth of coconut mountains

The joyful tears of dawn

Araba ponmbe ponmbe ponmbe

I see the Word

plumbing distant clouds for echoes of golden idioms

I see the Word

shaving mountainheads with razors of reason

I see the Word

on the lips of the gun, animally red

I see the Word

in parliaments of contending tongues

I see the Word

with ears of joy, stalks of swaying rapture

I see the Word

in the dream of a dream

in the dream of a dream [no stanza break]

in the cloud which gathers the rain

in the rain which unchains the earth

Abuubutan Eja okun (Inexhaustible, Fish of the sea)

Abuubutan Eja osa (Inexhaustible, Fish of the lagoon)

Adunnni lenu (A joy to have in the mouth)

Ma dunni lorun (Dreadful to have around the neck)

Araba ponmbe ponmbe ponmbe

The Word, the Word, is the ashes of twilight

The rainbow of vagrant skies

The Word, the Word

is rocks and roots

sand and stone

rust and dust

love - - and lust

The Word is the peeping window of heady tails

The vital valley of maiden hiThe Word, the Word, is the simmering song of the adze

The lyrical breath of fire on clay

The Word, the Word, is the hemhem of the barber's razor

The footsounds of the sun on the tarmac of the lake

Araba ponmbe ponmbe ponmbe

The Word is rain

The Word is dust

The Word is rainanddust

The Word is black

The Word is white

The Word is blackandwhite

The Word is life

The Word is death

The Word is lifeanddeath

Araba ponmbe ponmbe ponmbe

Give bony thoughts

The flesh of airy idioms

Let rounded laughters unknot the brow

Of wrinkled moments;

Scatter the Word

In the valley of the moon

Let harvestsongs reap the plenitude

Of waiting proverbs

In the Beginning was not the Word

In the Word was the Beginning

Araba ponmbe ponmbe ponmbe

Araba ponmbe ponmbe ponmbe

* This refrain is used for its sound (qua performance) effect; it has no translatable 'semantic' meaning.