Poems by Arna Bontemps A Black Man Talks of Reaping I have sown beside all waters in my day. I planted deep, within my heart the fear that wind or fowl would take the grain away. I planted safe against this stark, lean year. I scattered seed enough to plant the land in rows from Canada to Mexico but for my reaping only what the hand can hold at once is all that I can show. Yet what I sowed and what the orchard yields my brothers sons are gathering stalk and root; small wonder then my children glean in fields they have not sown, and feed on bitter fruit. --- God Give to Men God give the yellow man an easy breeze at blossom time. Grant his eager, slanting eyes to cover every land and dream of afterwhile. Give blue-eyed men their swivel chairs to whirl in tall buildings. Allow them many ships at sea, and on land, soldiers and policemen. For black man, God, no need to bother more but only fill afresh his meed of laughter, his cup of tears. God suffer little men the taste of souls desire. --- Nocturne of the Wharves All night they whine upon their ropes and boom against the dock with helpless prows: these little ships that are too worn for sailing front the wharf but do not rest at all. Tugging at the dim gray wharf they think no doubt of China and of bright Bombay, and they remember islands of the East, Formosa and the mountains of Japan. They think of cities ruined by the sea and they are restless, sleeping at the wharf. Tugging at the dim gray wharf they think no less of Africa. An east wind blows and salt spray sweeps the unattended decks. Shouts of dead men break upon the night. The captain calls his crew and they respond-- the little ships are dreaming--land is near. But mist comes up to dim the copper coast, mist dissembles images of the trees. The captain and his men alike are lost and their shouts go down in the rising sound of waves. Ah little ships, I know your weariness! I know the sea-green shadows of your dream. For I have loved the cities of the sea, and desolations of the old days I have loved: I was a wanderer like you and I have broken down before the wind. --- Reconnaissance After the cloud embankments, the lamentation of wind and the starry descent into time, we came to the flashing waters and shaded our eyes from the glare. Alone with the shore and the harbor, the stems of the cocoanut trees, the fronds of silence and hushed music, we cried for the new revelation and waited for miracles to rise. Where elements touch and merge, where shadows swoon like outcasts on the sand and the tried moment waits, its courage gone-- there were we in latitudes where storms are born
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 16:57:25 +0000
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