“I look at my own body With eyes no longer blind- And I see that my own hands can make The world that’s in my mind.”

For my best poems were all written when I felt the worst. When I was happy, I didn’t write anything.

The depression brought everybody down a peg or two. And the Negroes had but few pegs to fall.

I dream a world… where wretchedness will hang its head and joy, like a pearl, attends the needs of all mankind. Of such I dream, my world!

We Negro writers, just by being black, have been on the blacklist all our lives. Censorship for us begins at the color line.

Misery is when you heard on the radio that the neighborhood you live in is a slum but you always thought it was home.

When peoples care for you and cry for you, they can straighten out your soul.

Hang yourself, poet, in your own words. Otherwise, you are dead.

Out of love, No regrets– Though the goodness Be wasted forever. Out of love, No regrets– Though the return Be never.

Pleasured equally In seeking as in finding, Each detail minding, Old Walt went seeking And finding.

Life dosent frighten me at all.

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.

Love is a naked shadow, On a gnarled and naked tree.

Everything there is but lovin’ leaves a rust on your old soul.

Well, when Christ comes back this time, I hope He comes back mad His own self. I hope He drives the Jim Crowers out of their high places, every living last one of them from Washington to Texas.

Keep your hand on the plow. Hold on.

We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they aren?t it doesn?t matter.

The will determines itself; it should not be described as blind, any more than vision should be described as deaf.

Will you seize the day or waste it away? The finitude of time always on the mind. Will you see your future glory, or will you still remain blind?

Stop giving your infant heart/ wrapped in blind vows/ white lies/ and a haunted past/ stop asking for love/ if you don’t know how to give any/ stop hurting others/ stop it/ stop it/ just fucking stop it.

I was blinded by the desire to be wanted that I forgot how to love myself.

Who will you bring into battle? Who will blindly follow your lead? No questions asked, no hesitation. Have your back regardless, all doubts paid no heed.

My birth was a blessing. Sent to live and die on Earth; it’s a blessing. We each have a star; all you have to do is find it. Once you do, everyone sees it, you won’t be blinded.

She cannot Conquer your demons. But she can be the guiding light, which shines through the cracks of the darkest corners of your heart to blind them.

What a terrible era in which idiots govern the blind.