The Dreamkeeper and Other Poems
Date: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Year 6; Poetry

The Dream Keeper
and Other Poems

Langston Hughes

The Dream Keeper

The Dream Keeper

Bring me all of your dreams,

You dreamer,

Bring me all your

Heart melodies

That I may wrap them

In a blue cloud-cloth

Away from the too-rough fingers

Of the world.

Winter Moon

How thin and sharp is the moon tonight!

How thin and sharp and ghostly white

Is the slim curved crook of the moon tonight!

Dreams

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

Winter Sweetness

This little house is sugar,

Its roof with snow is piled,

And from its tiny window

Peeps a maple-sugar child.

April Rain Song

Let the rain kiss you.

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.

Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.

The rain makes running pools in the gutter.

The rain plays a little sleep-song on our roof at night–

And I love the rain.

Joy

I went looking for Joy,

Slim, dancing Joy,

Gay, laughing Joy,

Bright-eyed Joy–

And I found her

Driving the butcher’s cart

In the arms of the butcher boy!

Such company, such company,

As keeps this young nymph, Joy!

After Many Springs

Now,

In June,

When the night is a vast softness

Filled with blue stars,

And broken shafts of moon-glimmer

Fall upon the earth,

Am I too old to see the fairies dance?

I cannot find them any more.

Quiet Girl

I would liken you

To a night without stars

Were it not for your eyes.

I would liken you

To a sleep without dreams

Were it not for your songs.

Fairies

Out of the dust of dreams

Fairies weave their garments.

Out of the purple and rose of old memories

They make rainbow wings.

No wonder we find them such marvelous things!

Autumn Thought

Flowers are happy in summer.

In autumn they die and are blown away.

Dry and withered,

Their petals dance on the wind

Like little brown butterflies.

Poem

I loved my friend.

He went away from me.

There’s nothing more to say.

The poem ends,

Soft as it began,–

I loved my friend.

Sea Charm

Sea Charm

Sea charm

The sea’s own children

Do not understand.

They know

But that the sea is strong

Like God’s hand.

They know

But that sea wind is sweet

Like God’s breath,

And that the sea holds

A wide, deep death.

Water-Front Streets

The spring is not so beautiful there—

But dream ships sail away

To where the spring is wondrous rare

And life is gay.

The spring is not so beautiful there—

But lads put out to sea

Who carry beauties in their hearts

And dreams, like me.

Long Trip

The sea is a wilderness of waves,

A desert of water.

We dip and dive,

Rise and roll,

Hide and are hidden

On the sea.

Day, night,

Night, day,

The sea is a desert of waves,

A wilderness of water.

Death of an Old Seaman

We buried him high on a windy hill,

But his soul went out to sea.

I know, for I heard, when all was still,

His sea-soul say to me:

Put no tombstone at my head,

For here I do not make my bed.

Strew no flowers on my grave,

I’ve gone back to the wind and wave.

Do not, do not weep for me,

For I am happy with the sea.

Seascape

Off the coast of Ireland

As our ship passed by

We saw a line of fishing ships

Etched against the sky.

Off the coast of England

As we rode the foam

We saw an Indian merchantman

Coming home.

Sailor

He sat upon the rolling deck

Half a world away from home,

And smoked a Capstan cigarette

And watched the blue waves tipped with foam.

He had a mermaid on his arm,

An anchor on his breast,

And tattooed on his back he had

A blue bird in a nest.

Irish Wake

In the dark they fell a-crying

For the dead who’d gone away,

And you could hear the drowsy wailing

Of those compelled to stay—

But when the sun rose making

All the dooryard bright and clear

The mourners got up smiling,

Happy they were here.

Beggar Boy

What is there within this beggar lad

That I can neither hear nor feel nor see,

That I can neither know nor understand

And still it calls to me?

Is not he but a shadow in the sun—

A bit of clay, brown, ugly, given life?

And yet he plays upon his flute a wild free tune

As if Fate had not bled him with her knife!

Parisian Beggar Woman

Once you were young.

Now, hunched in the cold,

Nobody cares

That you are old.

Once you were beautiful.

Now, in the street,

No one remembers

Your lips were sweet.

Oh, withered old woman

Of rue Fontaine,

Nobody but death

Will kiss you again.

Mexican Market Woman

This ancient hag

Who sits upon the ground

Selling her scanty wares

Day in, day round,

Has known high wind-swept mountains,

And the sun has made

Her skin so brown.

Sea Calm

How still,

How strangely still

The water is today,

It is not good

For water

To be so still that way.

Dressed Up

Dressed Up

I had ma clothes cleaned

Just like new.

I put ’em on but

I still feels blue.

I bought a new hat,

Sho is fine,

But I wish I had back that

Old gal o’ mine.

I got new shoes,—

They don’t hurt ma feet,

But I ain’t got nobody

For to call me sweet.

Bound No’th Blues

Goin’ down the road, Lawd,

Goin’ down the road.

Down the road, Lawd,

Way, way down the road.

Got to find somebody

To help me carry this load.

Road’s in front o’ me,

Nothin’ to do but walk.

Road’s in front of me,

Walk…an’ walk…an’ walk.

I’d like to meet a good friend

To come along an’ talk.

Hates to be lonely,

Lawd, I hates to be sad.

Says I hates to be lonely,

Hates to be lonely an’ sad,

But ever friend you finds seems

Like they try to do you bad.

Road, road, road, O!

Road, road…road…road, road!

Road, road, road, O!

On the no’thern road.

These Mississippi towns ain’t

Fit fer a hoppin’ toad.

Song

Lovely, dark, and lonely one,

Bare your bosom to the sun.

Do not be afraid of light,

You who are a child of night.

Open wide your arms to life,

Whirl in the wind of pain and strife,

Face the wall with the dark closed gate,

Beat with bare, brown fists—

And wait.

The Weary Blues

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,

Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,

I heard a Negro play.

Down on Lenox Avenue the other night

By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light

He did a lazy sway ....

He did a lazy sway ....

To the tune o’ those Weary Blues.

With his ebony hands on each ivory key

He made that poor piano moan with melody.

O Blues!

Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool

He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.

Sweet Blues!

Coming from a black man’s soul.

O Blues!

In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone

I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan—

“Ain’t got nobody in all this world,

Ain’t got nobody but ma self.

I’s gwine to quit ma frownin’

And put ma troubles on the shelf.”

Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.

He played a few chords then he sang some more—

“I got the Weary Blues

And I can’t be satisfied.

Got the Weary Blues

And can’t be satisfied—

I ain’t happy no mo’

And I wish that I had died.”

And far into the night he crooned that tune.

The stars went out and so did the moon.

The singer stopped playing and went to bed

While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.

He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead.

Negro Dancers

‘Me an’ ma baby’s

Got two mo’ ways,

Two mo’ ways to do de buck!’

Da, da,

Da, da, da!

Two mo’ ways to do de buck!’

Soft light on the tables,

Music gay,

Brown-skin steppers

In a cabaret.

White folks, laugh!

White folks, pray!

‘Me an’ ma baby’s

Got two mo’ ways,

Two mo’ ways to do de buck!’

Song for a Banjo Dance

Shake your brown feet, honey,

Shake your brown feet, chile,

Shake your brown feet, honey,

Shake ’em swift and wil’—

Get way back, honey,

Do that rockin’ step.

Slide on over, darling,

Now! Come out

With your left.

Shake your brown feet, honey,

Shake ’em, honey chile.

Sun’s going down this evening—

Might never rise no mo’.

The sun’s going down this very night—

Might never rise no mo’—

So dance with swift feet, honey,

(The banjo’s sobbing low)

Dance with swift feet, honey—

Might never dance no mo’.

Shake your brown feet, Liza,

Shake ’em, Liza, chile,

Shake your brown feet, Liza,

(The music’s soft and wil’)

Shake your brown feet, Liza,

(The banjo’s sobbing low)

The sun’s going down this very night—

Might never rise no mo’.

Reasons Why

Just because I loves you—

That’s de reason why
a soul is full of color

Like de wings of a butterfly.

Just because I loves you

That’s de reason why

Ma heart’s a fluttering aspen leaf

When you pass by.

Minstrel Man

Because my mouth

Is wide with laughter

And my throat

Is deep with song,

You do not think

I suffer after

I have held my pain

So long?

Because my mouth

Is wide with laughter,

You do not hear

My inner cry?

Because my feet

Are gay with dancing,

You do not know

I die?

Po’ Boy Blues

When I was home de

Sunshine seemed like gold.

When I was home de

Sunshine seemed like gold.

Since I come up North de

Whole damn world’s turned cold.

I was a good boy,

Never done no wrong.

Yes, I was a good boy,

Never done no wrong,

But this world is weary

An’ de road is hard an’ long.

I fell in love with

A gal I thought was kind.

Fell in love with

A gal I thought was kind.

She made me lose ma money

An’ almost lose ma mind.

Weary, weary,

Weary early in de morn.

Weary, weary,

Early, early in de morn.

I’s so weary

I wish I’d never been born.

When Sue Wears Red

When Susanna Jones wears red

Her face is like an ancient cameo

Turned brown by the ages.

Come with a blast of trumphets, Jesus!

When Susanna Jones wears red

A queen from some time-dead Egyptian night

Walks once again.

Blow trumphets, Jesus!

And the beauty of Susanna Jones in red

Burns in my heart a love-fire sharp like a pain.

Sweet silver trumphets, Jesus!

A Black Pierrot

I am a black Pierrot:

She did not love me,

So I crept away into the night

And the night was black, too.

I am a black Pierrot:

She did not love me,

So I wept until the dawn

Dripped blood over the eastern hills

And my heart was bleeding, too.

I am a black Pierrot:

She did not love me,

So with my once gay-colored soul

Shrunken like a balloon without air,

I went forth in the morning

To seek a new brown love.

Wide River

Ma baby lives across de river

An’ I ain’t got no boat.

She lives across de river.

I ain’t got no boat.

I ain’t a good swimmer

An’ I don’t know how to float.

Wide, wide river

’Twixt ma love an’ me.

Wide, wide river

’Twixt ma love an’ me.

I never knowed how

Wide a river can be.

Got to cross that river

An’ git to ma baby somehow.

Cross that river,

Git to ma baby somehow—

Cause if I don’t see ma baby

I’ll lay down an’ die right now.

Passing Love

Because you are to me a song

I must not sing you over-long.

Because you are to me a prayer

I cannot say you everywhere.

Because you are to me a rose—

You will not stay when summer goes.

Homesick Blues

De railroad bridge’s

A sad song in de air.

De railroad bridge’s

A sad song in de air.

Ever time de trains pass

I wants to go somewhere.

I went down to de station.

Ma heart was in ma mouth.

Went down to de station.

Heart was in ma mouth.

Lookin’ for a box car

To roll me to de South.

Homesick blues, Lawd,

’S a terrible thing to have.

Homesick blues is

A terrible thing to have.

To keep from cryin’

I opens ma mouth an’ laughs.

Night and Morn

Sun’s a settin’,

This is what I’m gonna sing.

Sun’s a settin’,

This is what I’m gonna sing:

I feel de blues a comin’,

Wonder what de blues’ll bring.

Sun’s a risin’,

This is gonna be ma song.

Sun’s a risin’,

This is gonna be ma song:

I could be blue but

I been blue all night long.

Feet o’ Jesus

Feet o’ Jesus

At the feet o’ Jesus,

Sorrow like a sea.

Lordy, let yo’ mercy

Come driftin’ down on me.

At the feet o’ Jesus

At yo’ feet I stand.

O, ma little Jesus,

Please reach out yo’ hand.

Baby

Albert!

Hey, Albert!

Don’t you play in dat road.

You see dem trucks

A-goin’ by.

One run ovah you

An’ you die.

Albert, don’t you play in dat road.

Ma Lord

Ma Lord ain’t no stuck-up man.

Ma Lord, he ain’t proud.

When he goes a-walkin’

He gives me his hand.

“You ma friend,” he ’lowed.

Ma Lord knowed what it was to work.

He knowed how to pray.

Ma Lord’s life was trouble, too,

Trouble ever day.

Ma Lord ain’t no stuck-up man.

He’s a friend o’ mine.

When He went to heaben,

His soul on fire,

He tole me I was gwine.

He said, “Sho you’ll come wid Me

An’ be ma friend through eternity.”

Judgment Day

They put ma body in the ground,

Ma soul went flyin’ o’ the town.

Lord Jesus!

Went flyin’ to the stars an’ moon

A-shoutin’, God, I’s comin’ soon.

O Jesus!

Lord in heaben,

Crown on His head,

Says don’t be ’fraid

Cause you ain’t dead.

Kind Jesus!

An’ now I’m settin’ clean an’ bright

In the sweet o’ ma Lord’s sight—

Clean an’ bright,

Clean an’ bright.

Lullaby

(For a Black Mother)

My little dark baby,

My little earth-thing,

My little love-one,

What shall I sing

For your lullaby?

Stars,

Stars,

A necklace of stars

Winding the night.

My little black baby,

My dark body’s baby,

What shall I sing

For your lullaby?

Moon,

Moon,

Great diamond moon,

Kissing the night.

Oh, little dark baby,

Night black baby,

Stars, stars,

Moon,

Night stars,

Moon,

For your sleep-song lullaby.

Prayer

I ask you this:

Which way to go?

I ask you this:

Which sin to bear?

Which crown to put

Upon my hair?

I do not know,

Lord God,

I do not know.

Sinner

Have mercy, Lord!

Po’ an’ black

An’ humble an’ lonesome

An’ a sinner in yo’ sight.

Have mercy, Lord!

Prayer Meeting

Glory! Hallelujah!

De dawn’s a-comin’!

Glory! Hallelujah!

De dawn’s a-comin’!

A black old woman croons

In the amen-corner of the

Ebecanezer Baptist Church.

A black old woman croons—

De dawn’s a-comin’!

Walkers with the Dawn

Walkers with the Dawn

Being walkers with the dawn and morning,

Walkers with the sun and morning,

We are not afraid of night,

Nor days of gloom,

Nor darkness—

Being walkers with the sun and morning.

Dream Variation

To fling my arms wide

In some place of the sun,

To whirl and to dance

Till the white day is done.

Then rest at cool evening

Beneath a tall tree

While night comes on gently,

Dark like me—

That is my dream!

To fling my arms wide

In the face of the sun,

Dance! Whirl! Whirl!

Till the quick day is done.

Rest at pale evening . . .

A tall, slim tree . . .

Night coming tenderly

Black like me.

The Negro

I am a Negro:

Black as the night is black,

Black like the depths of my Africa.

I’ve been a slave:

Caesar told me to keep his door-steps clean.

I brushed the boots of Washington.

I’ve been a worker:

Under my hand the pyramids arose.

I made mortar for the Woolworth Building.

I’ve been a singer:

All the way from Africa to Georgia

I carried my sorrow songs.

I made ragtime.

I’ve been a victim:

The Belgians cut off my hands in the Congo.

They lynch me still in Mississippi.

I am a Negro:

Black as the night is black,

Black like the depths of my Africa.

My People

The night is beautiful,

So the faces of my people.

The stars are beautiful,

So the eyes of my people.

Beautiful, also, is the sun.

Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.

Sun Song

Sun and softness,

Sun and the beaten hardness of the earth,

Sun and the song of all the sun-stars

Gathered together—

Dark ones of Africa,

I bring you my songs

To sing on the Georgia roads.

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.

I, Too

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They set me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,

I’ll sit at the table

When company comes.

Nobody’ll dare

Say to me

“Eat in the kitchen,”

Then.

Besides,

They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed—;

I, too, am America.

Mother to Son

Well, son, I’ll tell you:

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

It’s had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare.

But all the time

I’se been a-climbin’ on,

And reachin’ landin’s,

And turnin’ corners,

And sometimes goin’ in the dark

Where there ain’t been no light.

So, boy, don’t you turn back.

Don’t you set down on the steps

’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.

Don’t you fall now—

For I’se still goin’, honey,

I’se still climbin’,

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

Youth

We have tomorrow

Bright before us

Like a flame.

Yesterday

A night-gone thing,

A sun-down name.

And dawn-today

Broad arch above the road we came.

We march!

Alabama Earth

(At Booker Washington’s grave)

Deep in Alabama earth

His buried body lies—

But higher than the singing pines

And taller than the skies

And out of Alabama earth

To all the world there goes

The truth a simple heart has held

And the strength a strong hand knows,

While over Alabama earth

These words are gently spoken:

Serve—and hate will die unborn.

Love—and chains are broken.

Lincoln Monument: Washington

Let’s go see Old Abe

Sitting in the marble and the moonlight,

Sitting lonely in the marble and the moonlight,

Quiet for ten thousand centuries, old Abe.

Quiet for a million, million years.

Quiet—

And yet a voice forever

Against the

Timeless walls

Of time—

Old Abe.

Aunt Sue’s Stories

Aunt Sue has a head full of stories.

Aunt Sue has a whole heart full of stories.

Summer nights on the front porch

Aunt Sue cuddles a brown-faced child to her bosom

And tells him stories.

Black slaves

Working in the hot sun,

And black slaves

Walking in the dewy night,

And black slaves

Singing sorrow songs on the banks of a mighty river

Mingle themselves softly

In the flow of old Aunt Sue’s voice,

Mingle themselves softly

In the dark shadows that cross and recross

Aunt Sue’s stories.

And the dark-faced child, listening,

Knows that Aunt Sue’s stories are real stories.

He knows that Aunt Sue never got her stories

Out of any book at all,

But that they came

Right out of her own life.

The dark-faced child is quiet

Of a summer night

Listening to Aunt Sue’s stories.

As I Grew Older

It was a long time ago.

I have almost forgotten my dream.

But it was there then,

In front of me,

Bright like a sun—

My dream.

And then the wall rose,

Rose slowly,

Slowly,

Between me and my dream.

Rose until it touched the sky—

The wall.

Shadow.

I am black.

I lie down in the shadow.

No longer the light of my dream before me,

Above me.

Only the thick wall.

Only the shadow.

My hands!

My dark hands!

Break through the wall!

Find my dream!

Help me to shatter this darkness,

To smash this night,

To break this shadow

Into a thousand lights of sun,

Into a thousand whirling dreams

Of sun!

African Dance

The low beating of the tom-toms,

The slow beating of the tom-toms,

Low … slow

Slow … low—

Stirs your blood.

Dance!

A night-veiled girl

Whirls softly into a

Circle of light.

Whirls softly … slowly,

Like a wisp of smoke around the fire—

And the tom-toms beat,

And the tom-toms beat,

And the low beating of the tom-toms

Stirs your blood.

Additional Poems

Snail

Little snail,

Dreaming you go.

Weather and rose

Is all you know.

Weather and rose

Is all you see

Drinking

The dewdrop’s

Mystery.

Stars

O, sweep of stars over Harlem streets,

O, little breath of oblivion that is night.

A city building

To a mother’s song.

A city dreaming

To a lullaby.

Reach up your hand, dark boy, and take a star.

Out of the little breath of oblivion

That is night,

Take just

One star.

Dream Dust

Gather out of star-dust

Earth-dust,

Cloud-dust,

Storm-dust,

And splinters of hail,

One handful of dream-dust

Not for sale

Color

Wear it

Like a banner

For the proud—

Not like a shroud.

Wear it

Like a song

Soaring high—

Not moan or cry.

Daybreak in Alabama

When I get to be a composer

I’m gonna write me some music about

Daybreak in Alabama

And I’m gonna put the purtiest songs in it

Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist

And falling out of heaven like soft dew.

I’m gonna put some tall tall trees in it

And the scent of pine needles

And the smell of red clay after rain

And long red necks

And poppy colored faces

And big brown arms

And the field daisy eyes

Of black and white black white black people

And I’m gonna put white hands

And black hands and brown and yellow hands

And red clay earth hands in it

Touching everybody with kind fingers

And touching each other natural as dew

In that dawn of music when I

Get to be a composer

And write about daybreak

In Alabama.

Merry-Go-Round

Where is the Jim Crow section

On this merry-go-round,

Mister, cause I want to ride?

Down South where I come from

White and colored

Can’t sit side by side.

Down South on the train

There’s a Jim Crow car.

On the bus we’re put in the back—

But there ain’t no back

To a merry-go-round!

Where’s the horse

For a kid that’s black?

In Time of Silver Rain

In time of silver rain

The earth

Puts forth new life again

Green grasses grow

And flowers lift their heads

And over all the plain

The wonder spreads

Of life,

Of life,

Of life!

In time of silver rain

The butterflies

Lift silken wings

To catch a rainbow

And trees put forth

New leaves to sing

In joy beneath the sky

As down the roadway

Passing, boys and girls
go singing too,

In time of silver rain

When spring

And life.

Are new.