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
