#AmericanWriters
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
I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the w… My soul has grown deep like the ri… I bathed in the Euphrates when da… I built my hut near the Congo and…
Democracy will not come Today, this year Nor ever Through compromise and fear. I have as much right
How quiet It is in this sick room Where on the bed A silent woman lies between two lo… Life and Death,
The census man, The day he came round, Wanted my name To put it down. I said, Johnson,
Being walkers with the dawn and mo… Walkers with the sun and morning, We are not afraid of night, Nor days of gloom, Nor darkness—
Because my mouth Is wide with laughter And my throat Is deep with song, You do not think
It’s such a Bore Being always Poor.
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…
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
Love Is a ripe plum Growing on a purple tree. Taste it once And the spell of its enchantment
We passed their graves: The dead men there, Winners or losers, Did not care. In the dark
been scared and battered. My hopes the wind done scattered. Snow has friz me, Sun has baked me, Looks like between 'em they done
I worked for a woman, She wasn’t mean— But she had a twelve—room House to clean. Had to get breakfast,
Night funeral In Harlem: Where did they get Them two fine cars? Insurance man, he did not pay—