#AmericanWriters
I know I am The Negro Problem Being wined and dined, Answering the usual questions That come to white mind
I would liken you To a night without stars Were it not for your eyes. I would liken you To a sleep without dreams
Here I sit With my shoes mismated. Lawdy—mercy! I’s frustrated!
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…
Clean the spittoons, boy. Detroit, Chicago, Atlantic City, Palm Beach.
The census man, The day he came round, Wanted my name To put it down. I said, Johnson,
I could take the Harlem night and wrap around you, Take the neon lights and make a cr… Take the Lenox Avenue busses, Taxis, subways,
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
What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run?
been scared and battered. My hopes the wind done scattered. Snow has friz me, Sun has baked me, Looks like between 'em they done
Love Is a ripe plum Growing on a purple tree. Taste it once And the spell of its enchantment
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…
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 ...
When you turn the corner And you run into yourself Then you know that you have turned All the corners that are left
Big Boy came Carrying a mermaid On his shoulders And the mermaid Had her tail