| 
 | 
 
  
  
	He is not a bad advertisement 
to the world of penpushers 
pushing out cabal words of the mind. 
 
Give me your blessings, oh! 
Pa Gabriel Imomotimi Okara, for 
I have made orison to the Creator,  
without any further procrastination. 
 
May I never feel fatigue, 
In this battle my being has sent me, 
may I come home an askari, like you, 
winning all the dreams, all the muss, 
all the songs, all the battles, all the screech 
in the pronunciation of cabalistic 
terrestrially wars of littérateurs. 
 
You have seen it all, Pa Okara! 
Apart from these shameful parts of descent  
(Littérateurs have no landscape).  
 
I am a son, brother, creative initiate 
clambering and raising hands and voice 
for the blessings of the time’s 
epitome of phoenix. 
 
The pregnant woman has born,  
the Friar has gone for baptism, 
the holy names have been named, 
but blessings and mysteries 
the Creator knows. 
 
The Friar called the holy names, 
but could not know 
the suiting name for a poet. 
 
Can a son bless the father? If “yes” 
then take the rituals I have learnt 
to carry out better: You are protected 
from all spells and evil 
casting spells on innocent immortals. 
 
The fruit you planted called poesy 
has grown a tree not ageing as you’re ageing;  
it has grown wide like the Iroko; 
from the four cardinals any enthusiast 
could see its fruit blazing like Lucifer. 
I am a glutton in this vineyard! 
 
May your blessings to me 
enlighten my eyes with true light,  
so I may see beyond my eyes could see; 
so I may think beyond my head could think; 
so I and my weakness will never 
prevail over my poesy warring being; 
so my hidden holy name will be pronounced; 
so I may live beyond my temporal being; 
so that people will study me in different traditions. 
 
People buy article in the mull; 
People go to church for faith; 
People go to school for certificate; 
But all these things 
Are handiworks of knowledge, 
And knowledge is as gray, 
or as coeval as the globe. 
 
I can see the 
Wand of Poesy in your hand, 
But this mystery 
Is a knowledge 
I crave with indulgence. 
Bless me, oh! Pa Gabriel Okara. 
 | 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 1  
  
 
  
Tags 
 
You must be logged in to add tags.
  
| 
 Writer Profile 
Odimegwu Onwumere
  
 
Odimegwu Onwumere, a poet and an author, is the Founder, Poet Against Child Abuse (PACA), Rivers State , Nigeria . +2348032552855. apoet25@yahoo.com 
 
If it's prose, he writes stories, 
If it's poetry, he writes poems, 
If it's drama, he writes screenplays, 
And he has achieved some poetry nominations, in the USA and in Canada. He was born in Accra Ghana. A Nigerian by origin and is in his early thirties.
 | 
 Comments 
You must be a TakingITGlobal member to post a comment.  Sign up for free or  login.  
 
 | 
 
 
  
 |