Invocation

Ancestral Spirit, hidden from my sight

By modern Time's unnumbered works and ways

On which in awe and wonderment I gaze,

Where hid'st thou in the deepness of the night?

What evil powers thy healing presence blight?

Thou who from out the dark and dust didst raise

The Ethiop standard in the curtained days,

Before the white God said: Let there be light!

Bring ancient music to my modern heart,

Let fall the light upon my sable face

That once gleamed on the Ethiopian's art;

Lift me to thee out of this alien place

So I may be, thine exiled counterpart,

The worthy singer of my world and race.