Poetry: “Acoustics” by Adesiyan Oluwapelumi
Adesiyan Oluwapelumi’s poem, “Acoustics,” requirers a few reads before you can hear its silence. The poem needs some close attention, but when the reader plays close attention, it becomes clear that the precision and sonic rhythm of the poem are almost as remarkable as the subject itself. Using one art form already overly concerned with sound and beat—poetry—Oluwapelumi’s poem considers music and the thrill of sound itself with a concern and rigor that becomes more remarkable each time the reader revisits the poem. Oluwapeluim’s work is full of surprises and details, and the simple. construction is a mask for the meticulous awareness and swaying power of the way that he uses music and poetry in tandem to ask larger questions about theology and still manages to find joy, even with his questions and answers unclear—the beauty of the art, for now, is enough.
Read his LINE LEVEL Craft Lessons from Poets of Color column here.
Acoustics
There I sat, crouched under the old altar—
Jehovah’s golden bell, gathering rust and mildew.
A fixed light falling with fickle grace through windowsill
onto my gaze, as I played the song of still hours—
savant to the rapturous praise of the awaited turning of the hand.
Under steady faith, the hymnal spire erected vertically.
Aloof, the gramophone—unfleshed with sound. The church cellar,
much quieter—lacking the visitation of God’s loud laughter, had began
to hear its own antiquity. O what glory to be sang in Brahms’ major cadence?
Born to be sang by cleft lips. Born with an amnesia of music.
How could I have felt the world in all its frequencies? Outside,
on the roof’s hull, a pelican chirped away tirelessly. Its sonic scar
rippled through louvered glasses. Arrested in that quiet room, the rattle
sang as loud as a whisper. When you can’t hear the music anymore,
the silence, too, becomes inaudible. O Lord, attune my ears to the timbre
of that riotous song once again. Let it resonate inside me
like a tuning fork. An echo persevering.
Adesiyan Oluwapelumi
Adesiyan Oluwapelumi, TPC XI, is a medical student, poet, essayist & Poetry Editor of Fiery Scribe Review from Nigeria. He & his works are featured in The Republic, Electric Literature, 20.35 Africa, Isele Magazine, A Long House, Brittle Paper, Fantasy Magazine, Poet Lore, Tab Journal, Poetry Wales & elsewhere. His chapbook Mouthful with Cinders was selected by Chris Abani and Kwame Dawes for the APBF New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Box-set Series (forthcoming Akashic Books, 2025). He tweets @ademindpoems.
