#AmericanWriters
Democracy will not come Today, this year Nor ever Through compromise and fear. I have as much right
The census man, The day he came round, Wanted my name To put it down. I said, Johnson,
I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the w… flow of human blood in human veins My soul has grown deep like the ri… I bathed in the Euphrates when da…
How still, How strangely still The water is today, It is not good For water
Night funeral In Harlem: Where did they get Them two fine cars? Insurance man, he did not pay—
Oh, silver tree! Oh, shining rivers of the soul! In a Harlem cabaret Six long—headed jazzers play. A dancing girl whose eyes are bold
You say I O.K.ed LONG DISTANCE? O.K.ed it when? My goodness, Central That was then!
I catch the pattern Of your silence Before you speak I do not need To hear a word.
That Justice is a blind goddess Is a thing to which we black are w… Her bandage hides two festering so… That once perhaps were eyes.
Where is the Jim Crow section On this merry—go—round, Mister, cause I want to ride? Down South where I come from White and colored
In an envelope marked: PERSONAL God addressed me a letter. In an envelope marked: PERSONAL
When Susanna Jones wears red her face is like an ancient cameo Turned brown by the ages. Come with a blast of trumphets, J… When Susanna Jones wears red
I worked for a woman, She wasn’t mean— But she had a twelve—room House to clean. Had to get breakfast,
What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run?
I am your son, white man! Georgia dusk And the turpentine woods. One of the pillars of the temple f… You are my son!