I would like to share two poems from black poets, Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks. I do not officially have permission to reprint these poems so I am including the copyright information. Sadly, I could not replicate the exact formatting for Brooks’ poem. Please visit the source website for the original formatting. Share your favorite poem by a black poet.
The Bean Eaters by Gwendolyn Brooks
They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair.
Dinner is a casual affair.
Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood,
Tin flatware.
Two who are Mostly Good.
Two who have lived their day,
But keep on putting on their clothes
And putting things away.
And remembering …
Remembering, with twinklings and twinges,
As they lean over the beans in their rented back room that is full of beads and receipts and dolls and cloths, tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes.
Gwendolyn Brooks, “The Bean Eaters” from Selected Poems. Copyright © 1963 by Gwendolyn Brooks. Source: Poetry Foundation
Silhouette by Langston Hughes
Southern gentle lady,
Do not swoon.
They’ve just hung a black man
In the dark of the moon.
They’ve hung a black man
To a roadside tree
In the dark of the moon
For the world to see
How Dixie protects
Its white womanhood.
Southern gentle lady,
Be good!
Be good!
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, p. 305. Source: Song of America
James Pack 