OCTAVES OF TIME

BY CARL JOHN E.T. ABRUQUAH

Contents
1. Octaves of Time

Time is that silent invisible entity

That slits by unnoticed,

As we move about

On this stage of life

Without pomp, without pageantry

It marches on

Unseen, as the wind

But on and on it goes,

Revealing scenes

That graduate through their octaves

Giving birth to greater octaves

Time, the silent breadth of God

That reveals the octavo purpose of God

2. Canvass of Life

Life is like the artist’s canvas

Or a movie celluloid

Or the stage of a theater

There is one grand artist

And myriad apprentice artists,

Some greater, some humble

Some adept, some novice

The Great Artist

Provides the canvas

The Great artist

Provides the paint brush

The Great artist

Provides the paint

The great artist

Swings his great brush

To and fro

On the canvas of life

We lesser beings

Swing lesser strokes

And make our destiny

And the Great artist

Molds our destiny

To suit his grand picture

He draws the clouds

He draws the seasons

He draws the universe

If He loves our strokes

He blesses us with

More beautiful strokes

If our strokes are ugly,

He blots them out

With a mighty swing

Let us draw beautiful pictures

Of ourselves, our lives our relations

So that at the exit gates of life

We would look at the beautiful canvas

Hanging resplendently

On the walls of time

And then can we declare

Oh! What a beautiful picture

I have drawn.
3. Mars

Great Red planet

Sister of our blue dome

What lessons are etched

On thine forehead

Like wrinkles

On the forehead of a wizened old woman

That man can learn from

Your skin is as dry

Of our great desert

And cracked

Like clay on the grounds of the Sahel

Your aura

Now supports no life

Great red planet

What lessons do thou have

For the great blue orb

We call our home?

4. Contradictions

The past and the future

Meet in the present

On this planet

In the forests of amazon

Man still lives in the Stone Age

In the labs of Silicon Valley

Man lives in the future

Technology is the future

Where we will be gods

To a primitive planet

Yet to be born

Time is technology

Technology is future

Civilization is advancement of technology

Primitivism is stagnant technology

5. Hutus and Tutsis

From where did the seed of hatred

Descend on so noble a people

As the Watusi and the Hutus

From where did it arise

Take root

And grow unnoticed

Into a monstrous tree

Dividing a people

Who had lived together

As one family?

The soils of Rwanda

Still echo

With the wails

Of raped maidens

And Slaughtered flesh

The molecules of blood

Raise a lament

To the gods of the sky

And the trees in the forests

Keep on asking in silent whispers

Why did it happen?

Why did it happen?

6. Power

The days of yore

When leaders where leaders

Are long gone

Now people seek power

To satisfy selfish ends

Now people seek power

For the glorification of their little egos

Now people seek power

For the fortification of their granaries.

7. Valley of sorrows

Life is a valley of sorrows

That we must cross

To the mountain of happiness

It is a valley of sorrows

Tempered with illusory joys

That nature has splattered about

To appease the sons of sorrow

8. Halls of illusion

Mazes, Mazes, mazes

The universe is full of mazes

Mazes that wind on and on

And lead seemingly nowhere

Illusions, illusions, illusions

We are in a world of illusions

Illusions that seem

But are not

What seems is not

And what is not seems

What is does not seem

And what does not seem is

Darkness, darkness, darkness

We are in a world of darkness

Dark desires and dark emotions

Dark designs and dark stimulations

Dark emanations that yield dark gloomy clouds

Monstrous tsunamis and ominous cyclones

Dualities, dualities, dualities

We live in a world full of dualities

Dualities and contradictions

That negate each other

Man, woman day and night

Gravity and radiation

Dualities that generate

The illusion of life

Knowledge, knowledge, knowledge

We are in a world of knowledge

Knowledge exploding like a nuclear bomb

Knowledge that is interwoven

Knowledge that is true and false

We are all groping in the darkness

For The true knowledge

The true knowledge

That will liberate us

To the glorious realms above.

9. The Universe

The universe is a body

And heaven is the brain of the body

God chews our spirits

And we enter myriad worlds

In his guts

Which churn

Round and round

Both nutrients and chaff

Ramble and crackle in the belly of time

And the radiative power

Sucks the pure

Into the doorways and roadways

The blood vessels of the universe

The pure nutrients

Become the blood of the universe

And ultimately rise to the highest

The brain of God,

The crown of time.

The chaff and indigestible celluloids

Ramble on

In a despicable odious mass

To the anus of God

To the gates of hell

And through the gates

The universe defecates into the cesspit

Of eternal torment

Fueled by the ethanol of indigestible chaff

And even within the roadways of heaven

Purification proceeds and the fallen gods

And angels

Are transformed into urine

And pissed out

Through the second gates of hell

Pissed out

Into odious cesspits

Of hellish gloom
10. Wonderful God

Our God is a wonderful God

He created the universe

Out of nothing

The worlds

Out of nothing

Nothing

Manifesting as gravitation and expansion

Centrifugal and centripetal motion

Cyclical and linear motion

Oh, what a mighty God

11. Woman

Woman is the negation of man

Full of un-understandable passion and emotion

Woman woman

The woe of man

Who sees without seeing

Woman who loves uncouth men

And dislikes gentlemen

Why o why

Was woman created in this way?

12. Earth Rumblings

The world is changing

The earth shakes with unease

Spreading tsunamis

Monstrous tsunamis

Over innocent beaches

Flooding complacent men

Her guts are belching fire and flame

Spreading hot stones and smoke

Into her aura

The earth vomits thick mulch

Swallowing whole villages

Is she not content

With the splendid civilization

That men have created

Or is she rumbling in anger

Against the entry of sons of perdition

This none can tell

All we know now

Is that our world is changing.

13. Unity of Life

What is happening to the sons of man

They make religion

That creates a gulf

Between man and man

Between man and God

They murder in the name of religion

They oppress in the name of religion

Little do they know

That there is but one truth

The unity and interdependence of all life

I pray for the emancipation of man

From the mental slavery of religion

Which teaches that

I am right

And you are wrong

I pray

For the illumination of man

To the absolute truth

The unity and interdependence of all life

14. Songs of the Spheres

Listen quietly

Wherever you are

Whether in the forest

Or at the sea shore,

And you will hear the song of life.

Watch carefully

And you will see the quavers and breves

Inscribed on the metric lines

Of the rainbow

As it streaks in a neat curve

Across the sky.

Listen to the melodious whistle

Of the wind

As it swooshes through the trees.

Listen to the trumpeting of elephants,

The rumble of the waves of the sea,

And the chirping of the crickets.

They are all different choruses of voices

Of the earth

Singing of its past heroes

Singing of its lost souls

Sometimes in tones joyful

Sometimes in tones sad.

Oh what melodious tunes,

Resonate from the very core

Of the earth,

From the bosom of her sister planets

And from the gullets

Of the stars and galaxies.

Be silent mortal man

And listen to the music.

It is the elixir of life

It is the nector of the gods.

It is the balm of the soul.

15. Earth

Oh what are you Oh Earth?

My little mind cannot fathom

What a great being thou art.

That bears lesser beings of variant nature.

The forests are your hair,

The animals are thine children,

Living on the comforts of thine blood.

And Man! What a creature!

Neither animal nor plant,

But maybe both on a higher scale,

Upright he stands

A restless spirit

Ready to take off

Into the yonder unknown above.

What a good mother thou art

Your bosom even harbors stranger beings

That men of old saw,

Beings that are now spoken off

In tales and myths

That the uninitiated minds cannot fathom

The dwarfs the nymphs, the devas

All perambulate within thine bosom

On a frequency that man cannot see now

What are you o earth?

A servant of God?

An extension of God?

Earth, whoever you are,

We look at you with awe.

Your bosom bears

The bitter and the sweet

The innocent and the depraved

The kind and the wicked.

When you turn on your bosom

You create
The day and the night,

And the seasons.

Are you a mother?

Who are you o earth?

Whatever you are,

We look on you with awe.

Are you our future?

Will we be like you one day?

That only the creator can tell.

Oh earth, great being

Mother of variant creatures

Servant of nature.

We look at you with awe

And adore your wondrous fruits.

And when our eyes gaze at you

From the heights of space,

We espy a sparkling blue marble orb

White clouds racing across your bosom

And the continents, thine children,

Smiling with joy

As they ride on your sweet

And comforting back.

Oh earth,

What a beautiful being you are!

Whatever you are,

We look at you with awe!

16. Moments

Every moment is a state of being

Imprinted in the womb of a woman,

Born as a child

Into the world of man

To express its creative power.

Each moment is a state

With the planets and stars positioned

In a unique way

Exerting a unique force

In the womb of woman.

The moment may begat a tree

An animal a man or a nation

Whose very quality and creative power

Is designed by the moment of time.

Oh God give us the power to discern

The moments that begat

The wicked tyrants of our world

So we can nip them in the bud

Before they express their creative power

In our world.

Oh had we the power,

We would extinguish the Hitlers

The Neros, the Bokassas and

The vampires in our midsts

Had we the power,

We would have nurtured

The great creators of our society more

That their contribution

May have even been greater.

Oh mysterious moments

You are but part and parcel

Of the immutable laws of time.

None can stop you

Because you have a hidden purpose.

That little minds cannot understand.

The wicked and the kind

Are all expressions of the moments

All working for the ultimate

Goal of existence

The unspeakable goal

That all beings seek.

May the creator mitigate the bad moments

And enhance the good moments

That our existence

Would be

One continuous, joyful

Feast and dance.

17. Milky way

The Milky Way is a forest

Growing in the dark world of space.

A forest full of trees

Brimming with life.

A forest full of animals

The great bear and the little bear

The eagle and the horse

The swan and the cat.

Look into the clear night sky

And you will see them

Race across the hidden paths

Of the dark forest

Each heading for a goal

Known only to themselves.

Is it a big river

Where they shall quench their thirst?

Or are they proceeding to a grand council

In the Great Hall of some Great Being?

Whatever the galaxy is,

Man yearns to explore this forest

And see in close proximity

The wonderful stories

Unfolding

In the great Milky Way above.

18. Mystic

The mystic sits in meditation

At the shores of the sea

At the point of meeting

Of three dimensions of matter.

The waves flow in a rhythm

Each wave with its story

Each wave with its tone

Each wave with its language.

Each wave is the harbinger

Of events unfolding and to unfold

Each wave tells a story

As they ram down

On the innocent beach

A beach,

Whose grains have been refined

By continuous relentless pounding,

Of relentless waves.
The mystic’s ears

Deciphers the different sounds

As the waves thunder on the shores.

The mystic reads the patterns

As the waves

In perpetual procession

Roll towards the shore.

The waves sing a song of the past.

The waves sing a song of the present.

The waves sing a song of the future.

19. How Sweet is the Night

How sweet is the night

With its sweet and gentle breeze

How melodious is the night

With its ringing and chirping crickets

How sparkling is the night

With its bright and blinking stars

How soothing is the night

With its soft and dark light

Oh how peaceful is the night

With its sweet and lovely aroma

20. Africa, Land of Wealth

Africa, land of wealth

Land of yellow gold and black gold

And other exotic treasures of the soil

A bottomless pit of wealth

Channeled through

The bottomless pockets

Of His Excellency,

The Great Redeemer

Channeled through dark corridors

Into secret vaults in Swissland

To enrich a foreign land

A bottomless pit of wealth

Channeled into the bottomless bosoms

Of concubines

Channeled into the shrines

Of shamanic protectors

In the midst of plenty

The people thirst in hunger

In the midst of wealth

The nations wallow

In death and poverty,

The riches of the land

Channeled into cesspits

And the bosoms

Of bloated unconscionable Ingrates.

21. The Horizon

Our dreams and aspirations are like a horizon

As we approach its fruition

It recedes into the distance

New aspirations to be achieved

An unreachable destination

Though we appear to draw closer

Relentlessly it recedes into time.

22. The Protester

A season of the protester

Has sprung

Like a volcano

Roused out of its slumber

Sparked by an incendiary of self

Born out of frustration

Of a system that devours its children

A wave from nowhere

Spun by years of blatant suppression

And psychological abuse

A wave

Seeking liberation

From tyranny and religion

A volcanic eruption

That blazes its way

Out of mental slavery

A cleansing wave,

Blown with no hand

A wave

That sweeps away

The make believe gods,

That washes away

The greed of despots

All hail protestors

All hail the new liberators

All hail the new revolution!

23. The New Century

A new century

Was ushered in

By the horrendous spectacle

Of an airline, transformed into a ballistic missile

Of destruction’

Reducing the palaces of capitalism

To rubble and dust.

A war in terror triggered

And raged for an octave

Until the imprimatur of terror

Was laid low in his mansion

The war of terror ended

And now another octave,

Has brought in the raucous voice of the masses

And sweeps

Fat, overweight self-glorifying dictators

From their lofty thrones

Turning their dreams

Into nightmares

The power of the people

Has become the voice of God

The prince of Libya is gone

The prince of Tunisia is no more

The prince of Egypt has fallen

oh the dominoes are falling

Sweeping away the filth

Of a generation of selfish, egoistic

Self-adulating and opinionated dictators

24. Ritual Murder

In an era of intellectuals,

They seek power and fame

Through gruesome rituals

Surreptitious visits

To decrepit shrines

In thatched dwellings

In the deep recesses of the wilderness

Rituals of blood baths,

Blood from innocent souls

Bestow charisma

On businesses,

On MPs,

On politicians of the land

Blood of innocent souls

To give power

Riches

Big cars

To greedy bastards.

They seek personal power

But deprive innocents

Of their leaves

On the day of reckoning

We shall see

The hypocrites
Meet their judgment.

They sacrificed innocent souls

For power, riches and glory.

25. Materialism

When I see the tsunami

I see the futility of materialism

See the monstrous wave

Sweep huge mansions and automobiles

Into oblivion

See the bushfires and earthquakes

Devastate all in their wake

Great teachers

Who thunder rapturously

Teaching us that

All is futility

All is nothing

All is vanity
26. The Plant

In the small seed

Lies the whole plant

A program

Embedded in a little seed

Which in time

Grows roots southward

Shooting stem and branches upward

Towards the sky

To the pinnacle of struggle and striving

As the unseen roots

Struggle in the ground,

Tapping nutrients

The branches shoot upwards

Into space,

And at the apex

Burst forth and bloom

An illustrious crown of flowers

That crowns a lifetime of striving

That brings forth the tree

That bears fruits

And seeds

Programmed to strive

To achieve the purpose of life.

Corruption
Like a cancerous canker

Corruption like a snake

Slithers in our midst

Until it strikes at the roots

Of our being
27. Moral fabric

Now it is culturally acceptable to steal

To rape the poor country to death

10% kickback has become 100%

The roads constructed, to be reconstructed

Now it is culturally accepted to lie

In the name of the party

Now the name ‘pastor’ has been debased

Oh what a hypocritical nation

A nation of pretenders

A nation of impressionists

Thieves are awarded medals

Because they are party financiers

Judgment debts lined the pockets

Of the Big men

Oh when Christ comes again,

Oh when the second coming arrives

Not a single soul,

Will make the mark

Now the big men sleep with little girls

Just for lowly paid jobs

Even the cunt has been debased

In a country of hypocrites