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Poem: Praise Song for My Mother by Grace Nichols

"Praise Song for My Mother" is a poem by Grace Nichols. Nichols was born in Guyana in 1950 and emigrated to the UK in 1977. Grace Nichols is a highly acclaimed poet. This poem is from her 2010 collection titled I Have Crossed an Ocean: Selected Poems.

Childrens hands holding a globe above an adult hand. — Bilde: Shutterstock / Begrenset bruksrett

What is a praise song?

Praise songs are among the most common poetic forms in African literature.

The praise songs are usually about gods, men, animals, plants, and towns, and they try to capture the essence of the object being praised.

Praise Song for My Mother

You were
water to me
deep and bold and fathoming

You were
moon's eye to me
pull and grained and mantling

You were
sunrise to me
rise and warm and streaming

You were
the fish's red gill to me
the flame tree's spread to me
the crab's leg/the fried plantain smell
replenishing replenishing

Go to your wide futures, you said

Picture showing the red flowers of the Flame Tree. — Flame tree. Bilde: Carol Van Hook / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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