I come gently
Like the evening rain

I come in silence
Like the dews of a virgin morn

I come suddenly
Like thunder, like the rain at noon.

Rites of first tuber and leaves to you
Oh forbears of redolent words
Salute to you who ponder our ways to sunlight
Salute to you who hold pestles of songs
To the mouths of mortal wrongs.

I salute the song I salute the singer
I salute the patience of quick proverbs
I salute the craft in immortal songs
I salute the pebbles I salute the pearls...

Give my voice the sonorous strains of bitter kolas
Give my voice the slippery depths of colobus bananas
Let my eyes curve into the past
Like a sickle in the harvest of gladsome songs
Let my blood draw the picture of things
Gone, going and coming...

I come tenderly
like the full moon
among gasping stars.

I come gently like the evening rain.