An Ode To Soyinkaresque.part 63

Here are three additional sonnets, continuing the journey into the "dense, lexical maximalism" of Wole Soyinka’s dramatic and philosophical world. These pieces focus on his biting social satire and his profound metaphysical inquiries into the nature of transition and death.

Sonnet XVI: The Beach-Head Prophet (Jero’s Chicanery)

A "velvet-hearted" rogue on Bar Beach sands,

With "luxurious hair" like a "biblical crown,"

He weaves a "spiritual trade" with dexterous hands,

To keep the "gullible flock" from a watery drown.

"Articulate Hero" of a "purchased grace,"

He mirrors the "material thirst" of the street,

With a "suave" and "sanctimonious" face,

And "rhetoric" to make the "profane" seem sweet.

"Daughters of Discord" he feigns to despise,

While "Amope’s" debt stalks his "hypocritical stride,"

A "trickster" in "Christianity’s" borrowed guise,

With nowhere for "moral decay" to hide.

He "metamorphoses" to a "state-sanctioned" king,

Where "militarized prayers" and "propheteering" ring.

Sonnet XVII: The Word’s Cartographer (Professor’s Road)

In the "Aksident Store," among the "shattered chrome,"

Professor seeks the "Word" in the "marrow of death,"

A "lexical" and "theocratic" gnome,

Who hunts the "Logos" with "nihilistic" breath.

He "plucks the road signs" from the "hazarded verge,"

To orchestrate "masses" of "twisted steel,"

Where "Ogun’s" creative and destructive merge,

And the "fragility of mortality" becomes real.

"Murano," the mute, walks with "one foot in each world,"

In a state of "agemo"—the "transitionary gap,"

Where the "Word’s" secret "essence" is unfurled,

Within the "cyclical" and "metaphysical" trap.

The "road" is a "no-man’s-land" of "grisly remains,"

Where "wisdom" is sought through "blood-flecked" stains.

Sonnet XVIII: The Fourth Stage (The Transitional Gulf)

Beyond the "living, ancestors, and unborn,"

Exists the "dark continuum" of the "void,"

Where "essence-ideals" from the "material" are torn,

And "singular identities" are destroyed.

A "chasm of transition" that the "masquerade" treads,

In the "incantatory" pulse of the "Egungun" dance,

Where "creative-destructive" Ogun spreads

The "will" to survive the "infinite’s" trance.

It is the "Fourth Stage," the "abyss" of the "soul,"

A "ritual challenge" to "fragmented" time,

Where "fragmentary" man must seek to be "whole,"

In a "maximalist" and "poetic" sublime.

From the "marrow" of "myth" to the "politics" of "day,"

He "cleaves" through the "shadows" to "find the way".

We like to continue with more sonnets exploring his film adaptations like Kongi's Harvest or his interviews and public lectures on the "burden of memory".