"Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Have you ever yearned to be free from cares, duties, and social restrictions and yet could not follow the restless urging of your heart? If you have, perhaps you too know "what the caged bird feels."


SYMPATHY
by Paul Laurence Dunbar

I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
   When the sun is bright on the upward slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass;
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
   When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals --
I know what the caged bird feels!

I know why the caged bird beats his wing
   Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
   And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting --
I know why he beats his wing!

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
   When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore, --
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
   But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings --
I know why the caged bird sings!

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

Dunbar gained international renown and popularized black literature by lecturing and reading his poetry. He published prolifically: seven volumes of verse (over 400 poems), four novels; four collections of short stories; dozens of articles in magazines; song lyrics, musical plays and sketches.

     --from African-American Poetry: An Anthology, 1773-1927, edited by Joan R. Sherman (Dover

       Publications, Inc., 1997)

To read more about Paul Laurence Dunbar, click here.

"Growing Apples" by Nancy Miller Gomez | Rattle: Poetry

Read the poem "Growing Apples" by Nancy Miller Gomez, and watch the video that accompanies it, a video of the author of that poem reciting it: https://www.rattle.com/growing-apples

The Final Say: On Giving of Yourself

     You give but little when you give of your possessions.

     It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

     For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?

     And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the overprudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?

     And what is fear of need but need itself?

     Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?

     KAHLIL GIBRAN

     in The Prophet (1923)

     Ralph Waldo Emerson, that lofty idealist who nevertheless had a penetratingly practical knowledge of human nature, wrote, "Rings and jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself."

     DAVID DUNN

     in Try Giving Yourself Away (1947),

     Second Edition (1956)

Langston Hughes reads his poems "African Dance," "Dream Variation" and "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"

Bad Week for the Rains Down in Africa

It was a bad week for the rains down in Africa, according to the January 25, 2019, issue of THE WEEK Magazine, "after artist Max Siedentopf set up six speakers attached to a solar-powered MP3 player in the Namib Desert to play 'Africa,' the 1982 Toto hit, 'for all eternity.' Siedentopf said he 'wanted to pay the song the ultimate homage.'"

"Africa" by Toto

(Official Music Video)

"The Golden Rule": A Poem of Jesus Christ

It was Gary Hamel (born 1954), an American management expert and founder of Strategos, an international consulting firm based in Chicago, who said, "The fact is, society is made more hospitable by every individual who acts as if 'do unto others' really was a rule." Here from the Bible is a found poem of mine about "do unto others," the Golden Rule.


THE GOLDEN RULE
A Poem of Jesus Christ
from the Bible: Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31
(New Revised Standard Version)

In everything do to others
as you would have them do to you;
for this is the law
and the prophets. Do to others
as you would have them do to you.