Efio-Ita Nyok|12 February 2017
One of Nigeria’s finest poet of Cross River origin, Orok Otu Duke, scribbled a poem for the Biblical 'Emmanuel' talked about in the Prophecy of Isaiah.
For poet Duke, this Emmanuel chases 'away the gloom' (see his first stanza). Again, Emmanuel is the 'breath of life' where 'life is an open door'. This smacks of life being 'an awful song'. In other words, an awful life is the gloom that Emmanuel scares. He crowns his poem with this auspicious phrase: 'Like a river in a flood, Cover the breadth of your land –Emmanuel.' Excerpt:
Emmanuel
(God is with us)
I was the tree
That really bent to the forces of your storm
I will rise
And seamlessly perambulate
Our well-worn path:
Let me go back to our cove
And swiftly sift the fiends
And free the blinds
To dance to the rhythms
That you bring,
To chase away the gloom
In the loom:
God is with us –
Emmanuel.
You are the voice of the thunder,
The eyes of lightning
And the breath of life –
Life is not an awful song,
But an open door.
I will no longer see days of sorrow,
But the harvest of a better tomorrow:
Like a river in a flood,
Cover the breadth of your land –
Emmanuel.
May the light of Jesus Christ the Emmanuel cover the length and breath of the world scaring darkness and gloom!
Efio-Ita Nyok
Is a Blogger, the Editor & Publisher of NegroidHaven.org
