Incident
by
Countee Cullen
Once
riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, 'Nigger.'
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, 'Nigger.'
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.
If We Must
Die
by Claude McKay
If we must
die—let it not be like hogs
Hunted and
penned in an inglorious spot,
While round
us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their
mock at our accursed lot.
If we must
die—oh, let us nobly die,
So that our
precious blood may not be shed
In vain;
then even the monsters we defy
Shall be
constrained to honor us though dead!
Oh,
Kinsmen! We must meet the common foe;
Though far
outnumbered, let us show us brave,
And for
their thousand blows deal one deathblow!
What though
before us lies the open grave?
Like men
we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to
the wall, dying, but fighting back!
A Dream Deferred
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 then
run?
Does it
stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and
sugar over--
like a
syrupy sweet?
Maybe it
just sags
like a heavy
load.
Or does it
explode?
Poems carry powerful messages and powerful messages are called for on this day. Share a poem, start a conversation, make a connection with others, but mainly think of Freddie Gray and be informed and engaged in the conversation as we try to take lessons from another very personal, and yet very public, tragedy.
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