Category Poets

Here I sitWith my shoes mismated.Lawdy-mercy!I’s frustrated!

Late last night ISet on my steps and cried.Wasn’t nobody gone,Neither had nobody died. I was cryin’Cause you broke my heart in two.You looked at me cross-eyedAnd broke my heart in two— So I was cryin’On account ofYou!

A nigger comes home from work: Jostle of fur coats Jostic of dirty coats Jostle of women who shop Jostle of women who work Jostle of men with good jobs Jostle of men in the ditches.A Negro comes home from…

Here on the edge of hellStands Harlem—Remembering the old lies,The old kicks in the back,The old “Be patient”They told us before. Sure, we remember.Now when the man at the corner storeSays sugar’s gone up another two cents,And bread one,And there’s…

There is a gin mill on the avenueWhere singing black boys dance and play each night Until the stars pale and the sky turns blueAnd dawn comes down the strect all wanly white. They sell beer foaming there in mug-like…

When I moveInto a neighborhoodFolks fly. Even every foreignerThat can move, moves. Why? The moon doesn’t run.Neither does the sun. In ChicagoThey’ve got covenantsRestricting me-Hemmed inOn the South Side,Can’t breathe free. But the wind blows there.I reckon the windMust care.

I pick up my lifeAnd take it with meAnd I put it down inChicago, Detroit,Buffalo, Scranton,Any place that isNorth and East—And not Dixie. I pick up my lifeAnd take it on the trainTo Los Angeles, Bakersfield,Seattle, Oakland, Salt Lake,Any place…

What can purge my heart Of the song And the sadness?What can purge my heart But the song Of the sadness?What can purge my heart Of the sadness Of the song?Do not speak of sorrowWith dust in her hair,Or bits…

The head of Lincoln looks down from the wall While movies echo dramas on the screen. The head of Lincoln is serenely tallAbove a crowd of black folk, humble, mean, The movies end. The lights flash gaily on. The band…

I walked all over the zoo and the park. I set down on a stone.I kept wishing I had a girl-friend Who would be my very own— But I didn’t have nary one, Not nary one a-tall.I asked my landlady…