I play it cool I dig all jive. That's the reason I stay alive. My motto

And that is what poetry may do, wrap up your dreams, protect and preserve and hold them until maybe they come true. Columbus dreamed of finding a new world, he found it. Edison dreamed ...

You and your whole race. Look down upon the town in which y… And be ashamed. Look down upon white folks And upon yourselves

Democracy will not come Today, this year Nor ever Through compromise and fear. I have as much right

I look at the world From awakening eyes in a black fac… And this is what I see: This fenced—off narrow space Assigned to me.

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, Rocking back and forth to a mellow… I heard a Negro play. Down on Lenox Avenue the other ni… By the pale dull pallor of an old…

The rent man knocked. He said, Howdy—do? I said, What Can I do for you? He said, You know

It’s such a Bore Being always Poor.

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.