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I want to write
I want to write the songs of my people.
I want to hear them singing melodies in the dark.
I want to catch the last floating strains from their sob-torn throats.
I want to frame their dreams into words; their souls into notes.
I want to catch their sunshine laughter in a bowl;
fling dark hands to a darker sky
and fill them full of stars
then crush and mix such lights till they become
a mirrored pool of brilliance in the dawn.
This poem is available through the Internet Poetry Archive sponsored by the University of North Carolina Press. For educational use only.
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Margaret Walker (1915 – 1998) was part of the African-American literary movement in Chicago. Her notable works include the award-winning poem For My People (1942) and the novel Jubilee (1966), set in the South during the American Civil War.
Lovely. Thank you for posting.
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Didn’t she have a famous poem, “Songs of my People”? Is this an excerpt of it?
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Oh nevermind, just noticed the caption. I guess it was “For My People.” It’s a stunning and rhythmic work.
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Write about what?
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