#AmericanWriters
I worked for a woman, She wasn’t mean— But she had a twelve—room House to clean. Had to get breakfast,
Now dreams Are not available To the dreamers, Nor songs To the singers.
Only dumb guys fight. If I wasn’t dumb I wouldn’t be fightin’. I could make six dollars a day On the docks
Clean the spittoons, boy. Detroit, Chicago, Atlantic City, Palm Beach.
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…
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…
You say I O.K.ed LONG DISTANCE? O.K.ed it when? My goodness, Central That was then!
I sat there singing her Songs in the dark. She said; 'I do not understand The words’.
I take my dreams and make of them… and a round fountain with a beauti… And a song with a broken heart and… Do you understand my dreams? Sometimes you say you do,
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
By what sends the white kids I ain’t sent: I know I can’t be President.
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
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
been scared and battered. My hopes the wind done scattered. Snow has friz me, Sun has baked me, Looks like between 'em they done