To begin our celebration of Black History Month, it's apt that we recognize today is also the birthday of Langston Hughes,"...born in Joplin, Missouri (1902). He was raised in Lawrence, Kansas by his grandmother, Mary Leary Langston. Growing up, the Lawrence Public Library was one of the only integrated public buildings in the city, and he spent as much time there as possible. He said, 'Then it was that books began to happen to me, and I began to believe in nothing but books and the wonderful world in books where if people suffered, they suffered in beautiful language, not in monosyllables, as we did in Kansas.'"
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| soon sun's warmth will triumph over frost and snow
Photo by J. Harrington
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As an example of such beautiful language, Camille T. Dungy is the editor of black nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry. We'll refer to this anthology several times or more this month. For today, let's enjoy one of the Langston Hughes poems in the anthology. It fits nicely with today also being the feast of Imbolc.
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Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
Earth Song
It’s an earth song ––
And I’ve been waiting long
For an earth song.
It’s a spring song!
I’ve been waiting long
For a spring song:
Strong as the bursting of young buds.
Strong as the shoots of a new plant,
Strong as the coming of the first child
From its mother’s womb ––
An earth song!
A body song!
A spring song!
And I’ve been waiting long
For an earth song.
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