#AmericanWriters
Good morning, daddy! Ain’t you heard The boogie—woogie rumble Of a dream deferred? Listen closely:
In the Quarter of the Negroes Where the doors are doors of paper Dust of dingy atoms Blows a scratchy sound. Amorphous jack—o’—Lanterns caper
Down in the bass That steady beat Walking walking walking Like marching feet. Down in the bass
Let’s go see Old Abe Sitting in the marble and the moon… Sitting lonely in the marble and t… Quiet for ten thousand centuries,… Quiet for a million, million years…
I would liken you To a night without stars Were it not for your eyes. I would liken you To a sleep without dreams
He glides so swiftly Back into the grass— Gives me the courtesy of road To let me pass, That I am half ashamed
Now dreams Are not available To the dreamers, Nor songs To the singers.
I worked for a woman, She wasn’t mean— But she had a twelve—room House to clean. Had to get breakfast,
Listen! Dear dream of utter aliveness— Touching my body of utter death— Tell me, O quickly! dream of aliv… The flaming source of your bright…
I am God— Without one friend, Alone in my purity World without end. Below me young lovers
When you turn the corner And you run into yourself Then you know that you have turned All the corners that are left
You say I O.K.ed LONG DISTANCE? O.K.ed it when? My goodness, Central That was then!
Big Boy came Carrying a mermaid On his shoulders And the mermaid Had her tail
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.
We passed their graves: The dead men there, Winners or losers, Did not care. In the dark