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

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is
(America never was America to me.

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

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.

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

In an envelope marked:
PERSONAL
God addressed me a letter.
In an envelope marked:
PERSONAL

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

I worked for a woman,
She wasn’t mean—
But she had a twelve—room
House to clean.
Had to get breakfast,

When you turn the corner
And you run into yourself
Then you know that you have turned
All the corners that are left

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams