PraiseSong for Niyi Osundare

                                     By Mona Lisa Saloy

Niyi, Niyi,
My brotha, my countryman poet
from my Mother/Fatherland.
I did not know you when
you blew into the CAC (contemporary arts center)
with Thomas Covington Dent
after we younger poets performed.
Your smiles, clapping like Ogun’s thunder
before you spoke, and then you said,
“I heard you sista; I heard you.”
You came you said, with Tom, to meet me.
You, whose presence spoke of my homeland,
your accent, Yoruba, my people, my source.
I did not know you were a giant poet
teaching the world to care for us for mother earth.
I did not know of your many awards,
you, renowned in your lifetime.
I knew the ancient sound of your young voice
was a balm to my poet spirit.
I knew if Tom brought you to meet me,
I’d better pay attention.
Your smile, the sound of your voice,
I knew we would be friends.

II
Niyi, Niyi
since those many years ago,
I sought your poems like a tapper needing palm wine
like a poet starving for wisdom.
I met your rain of metaphors
and wore them like spring showers
feeding nourishment to poet leaves dried
from lack of homeland truth.
I wear your metaphors like books
teaching me to speak the truth to power,
teaching me like love warming me on cold nights,
teaching me like my ancient motherland
returning to me with every page.