Poem: Through all of Nature in Search of Peace

PEACE IN MY HEART

I pondered upon this inestimable splendour

A pearl preciously scintillating in glamour

From the Heavens proceeds this great wonder

A boon prerequisite for harmony I amply ponder

Streaming from the highest heights in abundance

Given for humankind but neglected in ignorance.

‘Peace’, I figured unified nature in complexity

Stupefaction pervaded my being in perplexity

Decided must I encroach upon nature to extract

This pearl humanity to unite, not to distract,

Forth went I into the wider universe to loom

Really determined to bring down peace in boom.

I got to the planet Mercury and overly gaped around

Its tenuous atmosphere could not to my quest abound

Then to the extreme brightness of Venus, I proceeded

Swung with its retrogade direction, wished I succeeded

And far further into Mars’ icy structure in persistence

I searched untiringly for peace, sturdy in confidence.

With determination I got to Jupiter on procession

Glided through its internal heat surface in obsession

Further past Saturn’s brilliant rings I boldly ascended

Until Uranus’ loosed surface grisly got me suspended

Though discouraged I was, yet I drifted auspiciously

In the search for ‘Peace’ which I ventured audaciously

Darker in the solar system I advanced beyond

While accosting comets and asteroids in a bond

I reached Neptune searching on its blue steepness

And swayed through its stormier blocs of darkness

Then deeper into the dark icy heart of Pluto I went

My mission unsuccessful, I laid mute, still could vent

Pulsating in a near frustration my way I found

Back to our earth dogged to begin another round

Course committed into adventure I ably went

Searching through the globe in entirety unbent

I blasted and stormed the mountain vastness

Sliding earnestly through the valley steepness

I flew in the air like a bird and was sturdily resolute

Searched the freshness of the wind, ha! It was absolute

Like a fish I swam in the ocean’s candid munificence

Searched through its bottom and the sea’s fluorescence

As through the golden release of sunrays still I roamed

The mercurial complexion of moon-rays got me enfoamed

Fruitlessly exhausted and steeped in fatigue I halted

To worthily reappraise my mission as not to be faulted

In the stillness of my meditation came a voice so tender

“Why search for me outside, when I in your heart render?”

Lo came the realization that I went about searching in vain

For ‘PEACE’, a pearl which was already in my heart to gain

Search your hearts the floodgates of peace to open

Let peace flow out through you like a river shaken

To spread into all deserts, captives to give freedom

And unto all islands, harmony to restore minus random

Peace, the worthy key to a happy fraternity inexpressible

Expels all evil, virtues restore, human freedom responsible

Let the moon give’way its light in grave disarray

The sun its radiance may forfeit in utter dismay

Let the deep blue seas loose their brine exhaustively

The mountains their heights may shed causatively

I fear not, for peace in my heart flourishes in earnest

And must reign supreme, eternal happiness to invest.

-  Stan-William Oshiozekhai Ede

   11^th April, 1999