Happy Birthday Langston Hughes

Hem hem hem... in honor of the occasion I am posting a poem. Or two. Or five.
In case you didn't know, Hughes was a poet of the Harlem Renaissance. He was one of the first widely recognized black poets. Writing in the 1920s through the 1960s, he was greatly influenced by the introduction of jazz poetry and you can here jazz-like beats in some of his poems.
And I like Langston Hughes. That's important too. :)

Quiet Girl
I would liken you
To a night without stars
Were it not for your eyes.
I would liken you
To sleep without dreams
Were it not for your songs.

Isn't that beautiful?

The Dream Keeper
Bring me all of your dreams,
You dreamer,
Bring me all your
Heart melodies
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers
Of the world.

Just gorgeous.

Acceptance
God in His infinite wisdom
Did not make me very wise-
So when my actions are stupid
They hardly take God by surprise.

Haha. Too true.

Juke Box Love Song
I could take the Harlem night
and wrap around you,
Take the neon lights and make a crown,
Take the Lenox Avenue busses,
Taxis, subways,
And for your love song tone their rumble down.
Take Harlem's heartbeat,
Make a drumbeat,
Put it on a record, let it whirl,
And while we listen to it play,
Dance with you till day--
Dance with you, my sweet brown Harlem girl.


See? It's so great I can't even think of any good comments. He's just wonderful.

Silence
I catch the pattern
Of your silence
Before you speak.
I do not need
To hear a word.
In your silence
Every tone I seek
Is heard.

Poets have an incredible way of not only putting things into words, but putting them into beautiful words.

Question
When the old junk man Death
Comes to gather up our bodies
And toss them into the sack of oblivion,
I wonder if he will find
The corpse of a white multi-millionaire
Worth more pennies of eternity,
Than the black torso of
A Negro cotton-picker.

Wow. Isn't that such an incredibly powerful image?

Yup, this is what I do on my day off of school... look up poems. Haha. That's really all I have to say. Happy birthday my poet friend. :)

<3