Tag: Langston Hughes

End

There are
No clocks on the wall,
And no time,
No shadows that move
From dawn to dusk
Across the floor.

There is neither light
Nor dark
Outside the door.

There is no door!

————————————–

Hello Friends —

Well, that’s it! “End” by Langston Hughes (included in his Selected Poems (1959)) concludes this April’s poem-a-day series on this, the last day of National Poetry Month 2012. We’ve visited poems from 1000 and poems from 2012; ballad, haiku, abecedarius, concrete poetry, found poetry, quatrains, heroic couplets, and free verse; poems about family, love, death, war, money, transience, David Bowie, Dorothy Allison, Julius Caesar, birds, housework, and grilled cheese sandwiches. I hope that a poem or two spoke to you, and I thank you very much for indulging me in this celebration of works I love.

If you would ever like to re-visit a poem, you can find a list of the poem-a-days I’ve sent you this month (as well as past years) at meetmein811.blogspot.com. As always, you can also learn more about National Poetry Month at the website of the Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org.

Thank you,
Ellen

Hello Friends —

One of the hardest things I do each April is narrow myself down just one Langston Hughes poem to send you.

Theme for English B

The instructor said,

    Go home and write
    a page tonight.
    And let that page come out of you—
    Then, it will be true.

I wonder if it’s that simple?
I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.
I went to school there, then Durham, then here
to this college on the hill above Harlem.
I am the only colored student in my class.
The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem,
through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,
Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,
the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator
up to my room, sit down, and write this page:

It’s not easy to know what is true for you or me
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I’m what
I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:
hear you, hear me—we two—you, me, talk on this page.
(I hear New York, too.) Me—who?

Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records—Bessie, bop, or Bach.
I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
So will my page be colored that I write?
Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white—
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That’s American.
Sometimes perhaps you don’t want to be a part of me.
Nor do I often want to be a part of you.
But we are, that’s true!
As I learn from you,
I guess you learn from me—
although you’re older—and white—
and somewhat more free.

This is my page for English B.

Poet Langston Hughes was also featured for Poem-a-Day April 29, 2007 and Poem-a-Day April 18, 2009.

Madam and the Phone Bill

You say I O.K.ed
LONG DISTANCE?
O.K.ed it when?
My goodness, Central
That was then!

I’m mad and disgusted
With that Negro now.
I don’t pay no REVERSED
CHARGES nohow.

You say, I will pay it —
Else you’ll take out my phone?
You better let
My phone alone.

I didn’t ask him
To telephone me.
Roscoe knows darn well
LONG DISTANCE
Ain’t free.

If I ever catch him,
Lawd, have pity!
Calling me up
From Kansas City.

Just to say he loves me!
I knowed that was so.
Why didn’t he tell me some’n
I don’t know?

For instance, what can
Them other girls do
That Alberta K. Johnson
Can’t do — and more, too?

What’s that, Central?
You say you don’t care
Nothing about my
Private affair?

Well, even less about your
PHONE BILL, does I care!

Un-humm-m! . . . Yes!
You say I gave my O.K.?
Well, that O.K. you may keep —

But I sure ain’t gonna pay!

Hello Friends,

Today’s public service announcement on accidential overages and crappy ex-boyfriends comes from Madam Alberta K. Johnson to you courtesy of Langston Hughes in his 1949 collection One-Way Ticket. This poem is also included in The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes (1995).

April is National Poetry Month, and I am celebrating by emailing out my own selection of one poem per day for the duration of the month. To learn more about National Poetry Month, or to subscribe to a more official-like Poem-a-Day list, visit www.poets.org.

O.K., Bye!
Ellen

“Madam and the Phone Bill” by Langston Hughes was also featured for Poem-a-Day April 29, 2007.
Poet Langston Hughes was also featured for Poem-a-Day April 10, 2011.

Madam and the Phone Bill

You say I O.K.ed
LONG DISTANCE?
O.K.ed it when?
My goodness, Central
That was then!

I’m mad and disgusted
With that Negro now.
I don’t pay no REVERSED
CHARGES nohow.

You say, I will pay it –
Else you’ll take out my phone?
You better let
My phone alone.

I didn’t ask him
To telephone me.
Roscoe knows darn well
LONG DISTANCE
Ain’t free.

If I ever catch him,
Lawd, have pity!
Calling me up
From Kansas City.

Just to say he loves me!
I knowed that was so.
Why didn’t he tell me some’n
I don’t know?

For instance, what can
Them other girls do
That Alberta K. Johnson
Can’t do – and more, too?

What’s that, Central?
You say you don’t care
Nothing aobut my
Private affair?

Well, even less about your
PHONE BILL, does I care!

Un-humm-m! . . . Yes!
You say I gave my O.K.?
Well, that O.K. you may keep –

But I sure ain’t gonna pay!

*

Hello Friends —

Today’s poem is from Langston Hughes‘s “Madam poems,” a series of dramatic monologues in the voice of Madam Alberta K. Johnson, published in his 1949 collection One-Way Ticket. This poem is also included in The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes (1995).

April is National Poetry Month, and I am celebrating by emailing out my own eclectic selection of one poem per day for the duration of the month. If you wish to be unsubscribed from this Poem-a-Day email list at any time, please reply to this email with a friendly unsubscribe request (preferably in heroic couplet form). You may also request to add a consenting friend to the list, or even nominate a poem.

To learn more about National Poetry Month, or to subscribe to a more official-like Poem-a-Day list, visit www.poets.org.

Enjoy.
Ellen

“Madam and the Phone Bill” by Langston Hughes was featured again for Poem-a-Day April 18, 2009.
Poet Langston Hughes was also featured for Poem-a-Day April 10, 2011.