#AmericanWriters
The night is beautiful, So the faces of my people. The stars are beautiful, So the eyes of my people. Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Well, son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal… It’s had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up,
I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the w… My soul has grown deep like the ri… I bathed in the Euphrates when da… I built my hut near the Congo and…
I worked for a woman, She wasn’t mean— But she had a twelve—room House to clean. Had to get breakfast,
Only dumb guys fight. If I wasn’t dumb I wouldn’t be fightin’. I could make six dollars a day On the docks
I sat there singing her Songs in the dark. She said; 'I do not understand The words’.
It was a long time ago. I have almost forgotten my dream. But it was there then, In front of me, Bright like a sun—
How quiet It is in this sick room Where on the bed A silent woman lies between two lo… Life and Death,
When the old junk man Death Comes to gather up our bodies And toss them into the sack of obl… I wonder if he will find The corpse of a white multi—millio…
You say I O.K.ed LONG DISTANCE? O.K.ed it when? My goodness, Central That was then!
I could take the Harlem night and wrap around you, Take the neon lights and make a cr… Take the Lenox Avenue busses, Taxis, subways,
Fine living . . . a la carte? Come to the Waldorf—Astoria! LISTEN HUNGRY ONES! Look! See what Vanity Fair says… new Waldorf—Astoria:
Because my mouth Is wide with laughter And my throat Is deep with song, You do not think
To fling my arms wide In some place of the sun, To whirl and to dance Till the white day is done. Then rest at cool evening
Being walkers with the dawn and mo… Walkers with the sun and morning, We are not afraid of night, Nor days of gloom, Nor darkness—