ODE TO WOLE SOYINKA: THE SPEAR THAT SHAKES

Awake to eternal reference On the platform of Aké, Like the order of Melchizedek, Established on the timeline for ages.

Sown, same-sounding seems Overtly with no link or kin, Yet yielding beyond yearnings.

The initials plant the tree of memory on high, Nurtured nomenclature not noted, notwithstanding, But ability without stability yields futility eventually, on the contrary.

Keffi's Birthday Treat brings The Invention of The Swamp Dwellers, Where The Lion and the Jewel Quickens The Trials of Brother Jero.

A Dance of the Forests that increased My Father's Burden— What an era of The Strong Breed! Before the Blackout, Kongi's Harvest paves The Road, Where Madmen and Specialists Sing to The Bacchae of Euripides. Thereon, Camwood on the Leaves Establishes Jero's Metamorphosis.

Death and the King's Horseman Always surfaces in Opera Wonyosi, Hence, Requiem for a Futurologist. Sixty-Six years I read A Play of Giants, Right From Zia with Love as The Detainee, Hampered by A Scourge of Hyacinths.

The Beatification of Area Boy Brings about Document of Identity, Revealing secrets of King Baabu As one of The Interpreters in Season of Anomy. What a Tale of Two: Egbe's Sworn Enemy, Written by Madame Etienne's Establishment in Alapata Apata.

I'm sure The Man Died not in Aké, Then in The Years of Childhood, Also of The Penkelemes Years, During A Voyage around Essay. He says, "You Must Set Forth at Dawn."

Just like Idanre and Other Poems, A Big Airplane Crashed into the Earth, Having taken A Shuttle in the Crypt of Ogun Abibiman, Reflecting Myth, Literature and the African World View, As it is in Mandela's Earth and Other Poems, Which are his Early Poems. Samarkand and Other Markets I Know as one.

Towards a True Theater He built a Culture in Transition, Structured as Neo-Tarzanism: The Poetics of Pseudo-Transition, Strongly on Art, Vehement in Dialogue, And Outstanding on Outrage— All From Drama and the African World View.

In The Credo of Being and Nothingness, The Burden of Memory—The Muse of Forgiveness creates A Climate of Fear For Kongi's Harvest, Culture in Transition, and Blues for a Prodigal Translations In The Forest of a Thousand Demons: A Hunter's Saga, Immortalizing D. O. Fagunwa's Ògbójú Ọdẹ nínú Igbó Irúnmalẹ̀ In the Forest of Olodumare.

For his legacy and honors, The African Heritage Research Library and Cultural Center won't forget The writers' enclave in Lagelu As parts of Naija's Seven Wonders At Lagos Black Heritage Festival.

The Doctor of Letters from Leeds, Overseas Fellow of Cambridge, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Achieving Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, Nobel Prize for Literature, Agip Prize for Literature, Commander of the Federal Republic— Benson Medal champions Doctor of Harvard.

Same, the doctor from Princeton, Yet the Akinlatun of Egbaland, The tribal aristocrat and Academy of Achievement Golden Plate. Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, Lifetime Achievement they are. Indeed his spear shakes forever— Is it not?