Politics in any country in the world is dangerous. For the poet, politics in any country had better be disguised as poetry. Politics can be the graveyard of the poet. And only poetry can be his resurrection.
LANGSTON HUGHESPolitics in any country in the world is dangerous. For the poet, politics in any country had better be disguised as poetry. Politics can be the graveyard of the poet. And only poetry can be his resurrection.
LANGSTON HUGHESReach Up Your Hand… and take a star.
LANGSTON HUGHESA dream deferred is a dream denied.
LANGSTON HUGHESGood morning, Revolution: You’re the very best friend I ever had. We gonna pal around together from now on.
LANGSTON HUGHESI 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.
LANGSTON HUGHESOut of love, No regrets– Though the goodness Be wasted forever. Out of love, No regrets– Though the return Be never.
LANGSTON HUGHESGo home and write / a page tonight. / And let that page come out of you – / Then, it will be true.
LANGSTON HUGHESBeauty for some provides escape, who gain a happiness in eyeing the gorgeous buttocks of the ape or Autumn sunsets exquisitely dying.
LANGSTON HUGHESRoad’s in front o’ me, Nothin’ to do but walk.
LANGSTON HUGHESWell, 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.
LANGSTON HUGHESLooks like what drives me crazy Don’t have no effect on you– But I’m gonna keep on at it Till it drives you crazy, too.
LANGSTON HUGHESLife is a big sea full of many fish. I let down my nets and pulled. I’m still pulling.
LANGSTON HUGHESThis morning I paid seventy cents for two little old dried-up slivers of bacon and one cockeyed egg. It took me till noon to get my appetite back.
LANGSTON HUGHESWe build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.
LANGSTON HUGHESI did not believe political directives could be successfully applied to creative writing . . . not to poetry or fiction, which to be valid had to express as truthfully as possible the individual emotions and reactions of the writer.
LANGSTON HUGHESLet America be the dream the dreamers dreamed – Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above.
LANGSTON HUGHES