by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator
Alabama is a state that is not known for lifting itself into the national news very often - as it did this past week with the surprise election of a Democrat to the United States Senate. This flurry of national attention brought with it an examination of the racial divide that still persists across Alabama and indeed much of the nation, and a belief in some circles that the white Democratic candidate prevailed over the white Republican candidate largely through the efforts of the state's black population.
To honor that proud achievement, I have selected a poem written by a black man (albeit one from Missouri) that addresses the need for Alabamians of all colors to work together for their common good. One must suspect that Langston Hughes would have been heartened by what happened in Alabama last Tuesday and might have seen it as the dawn of an awakening day, a day that promises to be a good one for Alabama.
Daybreak in Alabama
by Langston Hughes
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.
Poetry Appreciator
Alabama is a state that is not known for lifting itself into the national news very often - as it did this past week with the surprise election of a Democrat to the United States Senate. This flurry of national attention brought with it an examination of the racial divide that still persists across Alabama and indeed much of the nation, and a belief in some circles that the white Democratic candidate prevailed over the white Republican candidate largely through the efforts of the state's black population.
To honor that proud achievement, I have selected a poem written by a black man (albeit one from Missouri) that addresses the need for Alabamians of all colors to work together for their common good. One must suspect that Langston Hughes would have been heartened by what happened in Alabama last Tuesday and might have seen it as the dawn of an awakening day, a day that promises to be a good one for Alabama.
Daybreak in Alabama
by Langston Hughes
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.
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