A Welder of the Word

for Mia Couto Dream, Dream, Dream. Never cease to dream Dream on, Mia Your beginning A tale of yesterdays Your today A tale of future years And the voyager never rests Without his dancing plume Beira, Cradle of the people’s poet Maputo, Agency for the cosmic itinerant Hibernating in royal skies Rooted in earthly machambas* Questing for moçambicanidade‡ Awaiting the cessation of wars Declaring the imperative of peace And the voyager never rests Without his dancing plume Melody of words In the wilderness of pages Litany of characters From the labyrinth of pain Horror provokes, fantasy begins Fantasy ends, horror begins Never a clear demarcation Writer Mia, you are the in-between! And the voyager never rests Without his dancing plume The bridge of life We cross better When the crafty master A new Mozambique masks And the voyager never rests Without his dancing plume Full of dreams Full of life Devoid of ignorance Enriched in hope Nurtured by destiny And the voyager never rests Without his dancing plume The Neustadt Prize is here! A salute to the Master A new dawn for Mia A new day in Oklahoma A new deal for Mozambique And the voyager never rests Without his dancing plume Norman, Oklahoma October 24, 2014 * Land used for cultivation. ‡ Mozambican identity. Niyi Afolabi teaches Luso-Brazilian literature, Yoruba, and African diaspora studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of The Golden Cage: Regeneration in Lusophone African Literature and Culture and editor of The Afro-Brazilian Mind and Marvels of the African World, among others. He read this poem in honor of Mia Couto at the Neustadt banquet. A Welder of the Word by Niyi Afolabi WORLDLITERATURETODAY.ORG 59

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