Hold fast to your dreams

“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.” – Langston Hughes

At the start of Black History Month it’s fitting to share poetry from one of the earliest innovators of the literary art form known as jazz poetry.  Hughes, not only a poet but also a social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist, was born Feb. 1, 1902 in Joplin, Mo.  He became world famous as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance in New York City.

His poetry and fiction portrayed the lives of the working-class blacks in America, lives he portrayed as full of struggle, joy, laughter, music, and pride in the African-American identity and its diverse culture. 

Today, for Saturday’s Poem, are TWO                         

of Hughes’ short works on hopes and dreams.

  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.

   I Dream A World

I dream a world where man
No other man will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its paths adorn
I dream a world where all
Will know sweet freedom's way,
Where greed no longer saps the soul
Nor avarice blights our day.
A world I dream where black or white,
Whatever race you be,
Will share the bounties of the earth
And every man is free,
Where wretchedness will hang its head
And joy, like a pearl,
Attends the needs of all mankind-
Of such I dream, my world!

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