Where Are You Langston Hughes?
It is in these moments
that I look for you
I struggle desperately
trying to understand
what is going on around me
I am confused and I am hurt
The pain I feel
at the atrocities I witness
leave me gasping for air
I need you to help me
You have seen much worse
in your life
You have suffered the hatred
cast upon you
and lived with the bigotry
When I am with you in Harlem
I am comforted
Looking deep into your knowing eyes
and down to your soul
You have honed the skill
of forgiveness
Which I do not have
and unsure if I ever will
You live in this ugly world
You face your critics and the racists
yet you are never fazed
Showing those who would do you harm
that you are always the better person
Please teach me how
to use my words as you did
Wrapping up the hatred
and indifference in poetic verse
I want to learn from the strength
you found by sharing with the world
how to rise up above this horror
By knowing your worth
in times of adversity
That we might also feel your pain
and soothe our own
Show me, I beg you
I want to understand
I must be released
I too, am America
Copyright © 2021 Christine Bolton - Poetry for Healing
All Rights Reserved
Laura Bloomsbury is hosting D’Verse Poets tonight and has prompted us to choose a favorite poet and either write about him or her or write to them directly in the first person. One of my favorite poets is Langston Hughes.
A Harlem Renaissance poet of the 1920s whose poetry resonates with me on so many levels. The last line of my poem is from his poem "I, too"
Read about him at the Poetry Foundation
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