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.
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.
Labels: Poets and Poetry