Skip to Content Skip to Navigation

One Man Mormon Blues Band: Music

Irreantum

(Gary Mccallister (one Man Mormon Blues Band))
I Nephi 17:5 "And we did come to the land which we called Bountiful . . . . And we beheld the sea, which we called Irreantum, which being interpreted, is many waters"

I have spent my life land-locked in Colorado. The few times I have been to the coast I have always be struck by the sensory explosion that assaults me there. The light is different and distances immense, the sounds are unique to my ears, and the smell is pungent and striking.

So in trying to imagine Lehi's arrival at the coast, after an extended time in the desert, I wanted to emphasize the sensory bath. Each verse begins with a sensory perception of some kind: smell, taste, hear, see. I try to extend those images and sensory feel throughout the verse, while still making note of the momentous event that this destination was. Here, the journey changes drastically from a desert of sand to a desert of seawater. Here, they sojourn for a time as they make their plans, build their ship and (I presume) learn to sail. This is not the end, but a dangerous new beginning.
I smell the ocean water
The scent of fish and the foam
Silver surface of the sea
Swells in gentle domes
Irreantum many waters
In the cold damp evening air
I smell the salt and the water
Purple light and seaweed hair

I taste the wet and brine and bitter
Dark salt clear moving free
Drawn from earths many stony mouths
The saliva that is the sea
Irreantum many waters
Rain rises from the waves like steam
Ice water and painful cold
On the sand an ancient beam

I hear the seagull on the water
I hear the crash crest of a roll
I hear the sound of distant breakers
I hear God whisper to my soul
Irreantum many waters
I hear the lapping on the shore
In our ship across the sea
Bless us this once more

I can see no end to water
I can see the end to land
I can see no end to Heaven
Just the sand whereon I stand
Irreantum many waters
I can see where we must go
The journey may save our bodies
Please God may it save our souls