Setaphire

APRIL IS NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!

LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING

JAMES WELDON JOHNSON
RENOWNED HARLEM RENAISSANCE POET x ESSAYIST x NOVELIST
EDUCATOR x CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST x DIPLOMET x LAWYER x LYRICIST
PLAYWRIGHT

Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us,
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun
Let us march on till victory is won
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might lead us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God,
Where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world,
We forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand True to our God,
True to our native land

APRIL IS NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!

LIFE IS THE ART OF DRAWING

CAROLYN J. OGLETREE
POET X PAINTER

Life is the art of drawing
Lines, oil, paint, and chalk
Red, white and blue
America

Life is the art of drawing
Brushes, pencil on canvas
Red, white and blue
America

Life is the art of drawing
From bed to bed and room to room
Red, white and blue
America

Life is the art of drawing
Boy, girl, marriage
Saint Mary’s church
Red, white and blue
America

Life is the art of drawing
House, car and society
Red, white and blue
America

Life is the art of drawing
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, children-P.T.A.
Red, white and blue
America

Life is the art of drawing
Black and white, no harmony
Red, white and blue
America

Life is the art of drawing
Wars and countless deaths
Red, white and blue
America

Life is the art of drawing
Peace
Red, white and blue
America

APRIL IS NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!

ELEGY WRITTEN IN AMERICA

FRENCHY HODGES
POET X ACTOR X EDUCATOR

Born down in Georgia
Died in Tennessee
Non-violence was his method
Love was his plea.

He lived with a dream
Told it to all he met
Many still remember
Others will forget.

Believed in the ballot
Taught it all around
Taught it in the country
Taught it in the town.

In nineteen-hundred, sixty three
He went to cash a check
Tried to cash a check for freedom
America shot him in the neck.

Many things they called him
Ni**er, gentle warrior, king,
Fool, dreamer, prophet, saviour,
He who bade freedom ring.

Freedom never did start its ring,
The dream never came true
The check never was cashed,
A debt unpaid comes due.

Born down in Georgia
Shot down in Tennessee
Love was his greatest gift
Freedom was his plea.

APRIL IS NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!

ARSON AND COLD LACE
(or how i yearn to Burn Baby Burn)
“Arson and Cold Lace,” first appeared in “Umbra.”

WORTH LONG
POET X FORMER STAFF COORDINATOR OF SNCC

We have found you out
Falsed face America
We have found you out
We have found you out
False farmers
We have found you out
The sparks of suspicion
Are melting your waters
and water can’t drown them
These fires a-burning
and firemen can’t calm them
With falsely appeasing
and preachers can’t pray
with hopes for deceiving
Nor leaders deliver
A lecture on losing
Nor teachers inform them
The chosen are choosing
For now is the fire
And fires won’t answer
To logic and listening
and hopefully seeming
Hot flames must devour
The kneeling and fleeing
and torture the masters
Whose idiot pleading
Gits lost in the echoes
Of dancing and bleeding
We have found you out
False farmers
We have found you out
We have found you out
False faced America
We have found you out