Happy Birthday, Langston

Today in 1902, in Joplin, Missouri, Langston Hughes was born. After traveling in Europe and West Africa, he came back to New York and became a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance.

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
     flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
     went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy
     bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.


There's more Hughes here, including Let America be America again which is too long to put here.