Selected Poems

Oyebode is a Nigerian poet and doctor, living in the UK - factors evident in this selection of his poems, many of which deal with issues of home and exlile, and the poet's place. His root society is his Yoruba homeland. He lives and writes in the foreign culture and belongs to, and is alienated from, aspects of both societies at the same time. His poetic longing is for the root culture - his exile has made the desire to keep the dream of home alive inevitable. On arrival, and England, he writes, 'a malarial lyricism/exiled and unaccompanied by song/arrived on this hostile shore.'The poems are selected, introduced and discussed at length by fellow Nigerian poet and academic, Onookome Okome.