Monday, November 17, 2014

LANGSTON HUGHES ~







 Langston Hughes

 


Misery




Play the blues for me.

Play the blues for me.

No other music

'Ll ease my misery.



Sing a soothin' song.

Said a soothin' song.

Cause the man I love's done

Done   me   wrong.



Can't you understand,

O, understand

A good woman's cryin'

For a no-good man?



Black gal like me,

black gal like me

'S got to hear a blues

For her misery.







Daybreak in Alabama




When I get to be a composer
I'm gonna write me some music about
Daybreak in Alabama
And I'm gonna put the purtiest songs in it
Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist
And falling out of heaven like soft dew.
I'm gonna put some tall tall trees in it
And the scent of pine needles
And the smell of red clay after rain
And long red necks
And poppy colored faces
And big brown arms
And the field daisy eyes
Of black and white black white black people
And I'm gonna put white hands
And black hands and brown and yellow hands
And red clay earth hands in it
Touching everybody with kind fingers
And touching each other natural as dew
In that dawn of music when I
Get to be a composer
And write about daybreak
In Alabama.







Advice




Folks, I'm telling you,

birthing is hard

and dying is mean 

so get yourself

a little loving

in between.






Little Lyric (Of Great Importance) 



I wish the rent

Was heaven sent. 






Homecoming



I went back in the alley

And I opened up my door.

All her clothes was gone:

She wasn't home no more.



I pulled back the covers,

I made down the bed.

A whole lot of room

Was the only thing I had.






Dream Variations



To fling my arms wide

In some place of the sun,

To whirl and to dance

Till the white day is done.

Then rest at cool evening

Beneath a tall tree

While night comes on gently,

       Dark like me —

That is my dream!



To fling my arms wide

In the face of the sun,

Dance! Whirl! Whirl!

Till the quick day is done

Rest at pale evening . . .

A tall, slim tree . . .

Night coming tenderly

        Black like me.





~ LANGSTON HUGHES



____________


Selected Poems
Langston Hughes
Knopf, 1959