Gabriel Okara was born at Bumoundi, Bayelsa State, in the Niger Delta in 1921 and educated at Government College Umuahia in Nigeria and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He worked as a bookbinder and printer for Federal Government Press at Lagos, served as the director of cultural and information services for the short-lived Republic of Biafra, and was the general manager of the Rivers State newspaper and broadcasting corporations. He is an honorary member of the Pan-African Writers’ Association, a fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters, and is currently writer in residence at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.

Brenda Marie Osbey is a poet and essayist. Her most recent volumes are History and Other Poems and All Souls: Essential Poems. A native of New Orleans, she is poet laureate emerita of Louisiana and distinguished visiting professor of Africana Studies at Brown University.

Acknowledgments
Introduction by Brenda Marie Osbey
Part I: The Early Lyrics
The Call of the River Nun
Once Upon a Time
Piano and Drums
Were I to Choose
Spirit of the Wind
New Year’s Eve Midnight
You Laughed and Laughed and Laughed
The Mystic Drum
One Night at Victoria Beach
The Snowflakes Sail Gently Down
Adhiambo
To Paveba
“Franvenkirche”
Fantasy
The Passing of a Year
The Gambler
Part II: The Fisherman’s Invocation
1: Introit
2: The Invocation
3: The Child-Front
4: Birth Dance of the Child-Front
5: The End
Part III: War Poems
Moods from Songs without Words
Leave Us Alone
I Am Only a Name
The Silent Voice
Suddenly the Air Cracks
Metaphor of a War
Cancerous Growth
Freedom Day
Moon in the Bucket
Flying over the Sahara
Kindly Sprite
Rural Path
Lady and Her Wig
Silent Girl
Cross on the Moon
Rain Lullaby
Come, Come and Listen
Sunday
Dispensing Morning Balm
To a Star
Celestial Song
The Glowering Rat
The Dead a Spirit Demands
Christmas 1971
Welcome Home
Waiting for Her Son
Part IV: Revolt of the Gods
Argument I
Argument II
Part V: The Dreamer, His Vision
The Dreamer
Bent Double with Weight
Darkness
The Precipice
Moon Massaged Me to Sleep
Adieu!
Anthem of Silence
Complex Matter
Dispensing Morning Balm
Setting Sun
Beauty beyond Words
Taps Are Dry
Self Preservation
The Little Bird
Morbidity
Smiling Morning
River Nun—2
We Live to Kill and Kill to Live
The Land at Christmas ’93
Ovation Seeker
Mass Transit Buses
Contractors
Civil Servants
Smokers’ Wish
Man Dies, Never Dies
Part VI: Prayers and Tributes
Give Us Good Leaders
Talking Nonsense
Rural Dweller
Lone Mourner
Apartheid
Spark in the Sky
A Prayer
From Ken to Mike
Rise and Shine
Requiem
Man Polygamous
Mammy-Water & Me
Wedding Bells
To the Lady of the House
For Ada Udechukwu
A Boy’s Dream
Queen
Letter to My Grandson
Babydom Wisdom
Waiting for a Coming
Snow over Home of the Newly Wed
Before I Say Good-Bye (India)
Moon over Heidelberg
Salt of the Earth
Eagle in the Sun
The Aruzzo Farm House
We Shared
Happy Birthday
Chronology
Glossary