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    Piano and Drums

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    Jay
    This poem describes hearing jungle drums by a river in the morning that evoke primal instincts and a return to youth. The drums represent simplicity and a closeness to nature. In contrast, a wailing piano solo is then heard, speaking of complexity, distant lands, and new horizons through its musical techniques. However, the piano ends abruptly, leaving the listener lost in its complexities. The speaker is now lost between the simple rhythm of the drums and the complexity of the piano, wandering in the mist at the riverside.

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    Piano and Drums

    Uploaded by

    Jay
    129 views1 page
    This poem describes hearing jungle drums by a river in the morning that evoke primal instincts and a return to youth. The drums represent simplicity and a closeness to nature. In contrast, a wailing piano solo is then heard, speaking of complexity, distant lands, and new horizons through its musical techniques. However, the piano ends abruptly, leaving the listener lost in its complexities. The speaker is now lost between the simple rhythm of the drums and the complexity of the piano, wandering in the mist at the riverside.

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    This poem describes hearing jungle drums by a river in the morning that evoke primal instincts and a return to youth. The drums represent simplicity and a closeness to nature. In contrast, a wailing piano solo is then heard, speaking of complexity, distant lands, and new horizons through its musical techniques. However, the piano ends abruptly, leaving the listener lost in its complexities. The speaker is now lost between the simple rhythm of the drums and the complexity of the piano, wandering in the mist at the riverside.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    129 views1 page

    Piano and Drums

    Uploaded by

    Jay
    This poem describes hearing jungle drums by a river in the morning that evoke primal instincts and a return to youth. The drums represent simplicity and a closeness to nature. In contrast, a wailing piano solo is then heard, speaking of complexity, distant lands, and new horizons through its musical techniques. However, the piano ends abruptly, leaving the listener lost in its complexities. The speaker is now lost between the simple rhythm of the drums and the complexity of the piano, wandering in the mist at the riverside.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    PIANO AND DRUMS

    BY Gabriel Okara (Nigeria)

    When at break of day at a riverside


    I hear jungle drums telegraphing
    the mystic rhythm, urgent raw
    like bleeding flesh, speaking of
    primal youth and the beginning,
    I see the panther ready to pounce,
    the leopard snarling about to leap
    and the hunters crouch with spears poised;

    And my blood ripples, turns torrent,


    topples the years and at once I’m
    in my mother’s lap a suckling;
    at once I’m walking simple
    paths with no innovations,
    rugged, fashioned with the naked
    warmth of hurrying feet and groping hearts
    in green leaves and wild flowers pulsing.

    Then I hear a wailing piano


    solo speaking of complex ways
    in tear-furrowed concerto;
    of far-away lands
    and new horizons with
    coaxing diminuendo, counterpoint,
    crescendo. But lost in the labyrinth
    of its complexities, it ends in the middle
    of a phrase at a dagger point.

    And I lost in the morning mist


    of an age at a riverside keep
    wandering in the mystic rhythm
    of jungle drums and the concerto.

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