Monday, May 29, 2006

 

Remembering Langston Hughes

I cannot let the month of May end without remembering the Poet Laureate of Harlem:

WHAT HAPPENS TO A DREAM DEFERRED?

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

Copyright © Langston Hughes.

I also have a special place in my heart for this one:

CROSS

My old man's a white old man
And my old mother's black.
If ever I cursed my white old man
I take my curses back.
If ever I cursed my black old mother
And wished she were in hell,
I'm sorry for that evil wish
And now I wish her well
My old man died in a fine big house.
My ma died in a shack.
I wonder where I'm going to die,
Being neither white nor black?

Copyright © Langston Hughes.

Langston Hughes died on May 22, 1967.

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Comments:
i read his works in high school....
very powerful words.....
keep up the great posts....mark
 
I have known rivers...

I bathed in the Euphrates
When dawn was young
 
Annarella,
Une biographie de Langston Hugues (1902-1967).
 
It had been so long since I read him, thank you for bringing back his memory to me, so excellent.
 
It´s been so long since I have read him, thank you for bringing back his memory, so excellent.
 
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