Poetry on the Page

I’ve come to take you home is one of the most important poems of political significance in the 20th Century. Written in 1998, by Diana Ferrus, a South African writer, poet and storyteller of Khoisan ancestry,...

Langston Hughes, considered the unofficial Poet Laureate of African-Americans, was a prolific writer, who published ten volumes of poetry. One of Hughes's most widely anthologized poem, was his first published ...

"I was lying in my cell reading one night, when all the guys came in. I had been working on the prison newspaper and had gotten off work early. When they came in, the word came that a young brother had been rap...

Lucille Clifton (June 27, 1936 – February 13, 2010) was a prolific and widely respected African-American poet. Clifton was the first author to have two books of poetry chosen as finalists for the Pulitzer Pri...

Maya Angelou lived life after life in her 86 years. She was an author, historian, songwriter, playwright, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer, singer, and civil rights activist. However,...

i am accused of tending to the past as if i made it, as if i sculpted it with my own hands. i did not. this past was waiting for me when i came, a monstrous unnamed baby, and i with my mother's itch too...

After four score years of freedom Our so-called leaders say The the race has made great progress And we face the dawn of day But the day is not quite dawning Millions of my peoples stand Pleading at the b...

If the muse were mine to tempt it And my feeble voice were strong, If my tongue were trained to measures, I would sing a stirring song. I would sing a song heroic Of those noble sons of Ham, Of the gallan...

I am a black woman the music of my song some sweet arpeggio of tears is written in a minor key and I can be heard humming in the night I saw my mate leap screaming to the sea and I/with these hands/c...

Where have you gone with your confident walk with your crooked smile why did you leave me when you took your laughter and departed are you aware that with you went the sun all light and wh...