Praise and kudos for my sister and brother poets
Praise this city with a mighty estuary that seasons our words with salt
Praise all the poets whose new spices gives us a diverse menu of verses
We are joined by meter, form, rhythm, new tongues that tease palates
Praise our ancestors, griot storytellers, sounds that burst through lips Who spoke and spread history tales songs of life progress and strife
Praise the poets with quill and pen, early recorders of romance war love
Praise the performance poets whose sounds resound as the gulls sway
To the syncopation of vowels, consonants, dipthongs spit into the sky
Praise voices that holler pray whisper rasp howl
Praise our words we share freely
Priase all wordsmithys on this International Day set aside for us
Honoring our mission our craft our solitude as we create
Priase our stub of pencil
Praise our fine point of pen
Praise that poetry is positively political as we work
To keep our river clean our city safe our children innocent
Praise poetry that is an activist of change
Praise the poet who brings us hope when we hurt
Soothes when we need to come together to heal
Praise the poets who write in blood red
Ink for never to be seen again loved ones
Countries left but never forgotten
Praise all the poets who speak up
We poets are the messenger
Praise to us all who find the balance of words
That lift our community’s spirits
Praise to the poets in elegy whose words gave us
A foundation to learn from and to teach others
Praise to the poets who have the courage to create
And like our great City of Yonkers we persevere
We are all poets. Praise us all