African poems

Have to go to the conference any minute. But I would like to share a poem I saw on the London underground yesterday. The poem is by Niyi Osundare from Nigeria, professor of English at the University of New Orleans and one of six African poets to be on display in the underground this summer.

"I sing
of the beauty of Athens
without its slaves

Of a world free
of kings and queens
and other remnants
of an arbitrary past

Of earth
with no sharp north
or deep south
without blind curtains
or iron walls

Of the end
of warlords and armouries
and prisons of hate and fear

Of deserts treeing
and fruiting
after the quickening rains

Of the sun radiating ignorance
and stars informing
nights of unknowing

I sing of a world reshaped"