#AmericanWriters
You sicken me with lies, With truthful lies. And with your pious faces. And your wide, out—stretched, mock—welcome, Christian hands.
When you turn the corner And you run into yourself Then you know that you have turned All the corners that are left
Democracy will not come Today, this year Nor ever Through compromise and fear. I have as much right
I sat there singing her Songs in the dark. She said; 'I do not understand The words’.
Clean the spittoons, boy. Detroit, Chicago, Atlantic City, Palm Beach.
How quiet It is in this sick room Where on the bed A silent woman lies between two lo… Life and Death,
Gather quickly Out of darkness All the songs you know And throw them at the sun Before they melt
Because my mouth Is wide with laughter And my throat Is deep with song, You do not think
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…
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
The census man, The day he came round, Wanted my name To put it down. I said, Johnson,
When I get to be a composer I’m gonna write me some music abou… Daybreak in Alabama And I’m gonna put the purtiest so… Rising out of the ground like a sw…
I am your son, white man! Georgia dusk And the turpentine woods. One of the pillars of the temple f… You are my son!
Children, I come back today To tell you a story of the long da… That I had to climb, that I had t… In order that the race might live… Look at my face —dark as the night…
I dream a world where man No other man will scorn, Where love will bless the earth And peace its paths adorn I dream a world where all