#AmericanWriters
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…
The gold moth did not love him So, gorgeous, she flew away. But the gray moth circled the flam… Until the break of day. And then, with wings like a dead d…
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
Go home and write a page tonight. And let that page come out of you— Then, it will be true. I wonder if it’s that simple?
Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams
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.
Gather quickly Out of darkness All the songs you know And throw them at the sun Before they melt
You and your whole race. Look down upon the town in which y… And be ashamed. Look down upon white folks And upon yourselves
God in His infinite wisdom Did not make me very wise— So when my actions are stupid They hardly take God by surprise
When the shoe strings break On both your shoes And you’re in a hurry— That’s the blues. When you go to buy a candy bar
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
I know I am The Negro Problem Being wined and dined, Answering the usual questions That come to white mind
Tell all my mourners To mourn in red — Cause there ain’t no sense In my bein’ dead.
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.
I’m all alone in this world, she s… Ain’t got nobody to share my bed, Ain’t got nobody to hold my hand— The truth of the matter’s I ain’t got no man.