Gather up In the arms of your love – Those who expect No love from above.
Money and art are far apart.
Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.
Gather out of star-dust, Earth-dust, Cloud-dust, Storm-dust, And splinters of hail, One handful of dream-dust, Not for sale.
Oh, God of Dust and Rainbows, Help us to see That without the dust the rainbow Would not be.
America never was America to me And yet I swear this oath – America will be!
O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe.
Let America be America, where equality is in the air we breathe.
For my best poems were all written when I felt the worst. When I was happy, I didn’t write anything.
We Negro writers, just by being black, have been on the blacklist all our lives. Censorship for us begins at the color line.
Politics can be the graveyard of the poet. And only poetry can be his resurrection.
Hang yourself, poet, in your own words. Otherwise, you are dead.
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love. I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I tire so of hearing people say, Let things take their course. Tomorrow is another day. I do not need my freedom when I’m dead. I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread.
The past has been a mint Of blood and sorrow. That must not be True of tomorrow.
A world I dream where black or white, whatever race you be, will share the bounties of the earth and every man is free.
I don’t dare start thinking in the morning. I don’t dare start thinking in the morning. If I thought thoughts in bed, Them thoughts would bust my head – So I don’t dare start thinking in the morning.
I stay cool, and dig all jive, That’s the way I stay alive. My motto, as I live and learn, is Dig and be dug In return.
Gather quickly Out of darkness All the songs you know And throw them at the sun Before they melt Like snow.
Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.