"Cross" by Langston Hughes

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.


"Bad Man" by Langston Hughes

I'm a bad man
Cause everybody tells me so.
I'm a bad, bad man.
Everybody tells me so.
I takes my meanness and ma licker
Everywhere I go.

I beats my wife an'
I beats ma side fall too.
Beats my wide an'
Beats my side gall too.
Don't know why I do it but
It keeps me from feelin' blue.

I'm so bad I
Don't even want to be good.
So bad, bad, bad I
Don't even want to be good.
I'm goin' to da devil an'
I wouldn't go to heaven if I could.


"Harlem" by Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-
And the run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sigar over-
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?



"Much Madness Is Divinest Sense" by Emily Dickinson

Much Madness is divinest Sense-
To a discerning Eye-
Much Sense - the starkest Madness
'Tis the Majority
In this, as all, prevail -
Assent - and you are sane -
Demur - you're straightway dangerous -
And handled with a Chain -

"My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close" by Emily Dickinson

My life closed twice before it's close;
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me,

So huge, so hopeless to concieve
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.

"I Never Lost as Much But Twice" by Emily Dickinson

I never lost as much but twice-
And that was in the God.
Twice have I stood a beggar
Before the door of God!

Angels- twice descending
Reimbursed my store-
Burglar! Banker- Father!
I am poor once more!

"Negro" by Langston Hughes

I am Negro:
Black as the night is black,
Black like the depths of my Africa.

I've been a slave:
Ceaser told me to keep his door-steps clean.
I brushed the boots of Washington.

I've been a worker:
Under my hand the pyramids arose.
I made mortar for the Woolworth Building.

I've been a singer:
All the way from Africa to Georgia
I carried my sorrow songs.
I made ragtime.

I've been a victim:
The Belgians cut off my hands in the Congo.
They lynch me still in Mississippi.

I am a Negro:
Black as the night is black,
Black like the depths of my Africa.