An Ode To Soyinkaresque.part 62

Here are three more sonnets, continuing the exploration of Wole Soyinka’s dense, maximalist literary journey—now shifting toward his later poetic reflections on global exile, political martyrs, and the fierce oratory of his later collections.

Within the "tungsten vacuum" of the cell,

A pulse "phlegmatic" as the seasons' turn,

Defies the "Judas hole" where shadows dwell,

While millions on his "tautened drumskin" yearn.

He is the "prisoner" of his own guard’s fear,

A "dare supreme" against a "dire race,"

Whose silence is a "trumpet" all can hear,

Etching "reconciliation" on the void’s face.

Yet "leeches" latch upon his "keenest edge,"

Dulling the "repletion" of his iron act,

As nations trade their "honor" for a pledge,

And "compromise" erodes the "sacred pact".

Mandela stands, a "monolith of will,"

While "tidal waves" of history circle, still.

Sonnet XIV: The Market of Samarkand (The Exile’s Map)

From "Fugitive Phases" through the "socio-political junkyard,"

He wields "pebbles and nettles" on a "stinging tongue,"

A "Demosthenes" whose "caustic words" hit hard,

Where "truth" is from a "leaking vessel" wrung.

In "Samarkand," where "strangers peacefully trade,"

The "bag lady" eats her "business lunch" in grime,

While "activist-martyrs" in the "shrouds" are laid,

Executed by the "junkies" of their time.

"Twelve canticles" for the "zealot’s" hollow pride,

A "clash of fundamentalist" and "reasoned" breath,

Where "exiled voices" have no place to hide,

From "itinerant" and "global" masks of death.

The "poet-lion" roars across the "sea,"

Mapping the "sorrows" of a "land not free".

Sonnet XV: The Open Sore (A Nation’s Anatomy)

He "dissects" the "festering" and "open sore,"

Of a continent "betrayed" by its own "hand,"

Where "military boots" upon the "temple floor,"

Crush the "nascent hope" of the "promised land".

"Ken Saro-Wiwa" haunts the "gallows' height,"

A "sacrificial bird" in a "charred" domain,

As "Soyinka" writes into the "fading light,"

A "lexical" and "maximalist" refrain.

No "shallow mimicry" of "Western form,"

But "Yoruba reference points" from "within the soul,"

Surviving "dictatorship’s" and "Sani’s storm,"

To keep the "humanistic spirit" whole.

The "man" survives the "limestone and the chain,"

For "justice" is the "marrow" of his brain.

We like to proceed with the next set by focusing on his Nobel Prize-era speeches or perhaps his satirical characters like Brother Jero and Professor from The Road.