Whats up
here you will find some of the best and most interesting
poems, short stories, and quotes I have read
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Booker T. and W.E.B.
(Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois)
"It seems to me," said Booker T.,
"It shows a mighty lot of cheek
To study chemistry and Greek
When Mister Charlie needs a hand
To hoe the cotton on his land,
And when Miss Ann looks for a cook,
Why stick your nose inside a book?"
"I don't agree," said W.E.B.
"If I should have the drive to seek
Knowledge of chemistry or Greek,
I'll do it. Charles and Miss can look
Another place for hand or cook.
Some men rejoice in skill of hand,
And some in cultivating land,
But there are others who maintain
The right to cultivate the brain."
"It seems to me," said Booker T.,
"That all you you folks have missed the boat
Who shout about the right to vote,
And spend vain days and sleepless nights
In uproar over civil rights.
Just keep your mouths shut, do not grouse,
But work, and save, and buy a house."
"I don't agree," said W.E.B.,
"For what can poperty avail
If dignity and justice fail?
Unless you help to make the laws,
They'll steal your house with trumped-up clause.
A rope's as tight, a fire as hot,
No matter how much cash you've got.
Speak soft, and try your little plan,
But as for me I'll be a man."
"It seems to me," said Booker T.-
"I don't agree,"
Said W.E.B.
Dudley Randall
There Is No Indispensable Man
...He usually begins his first classes
each term by stating, "My name is --
and I have an I.Q. of 145."
One student addressed him one day as
"Mr.--' and he curtly replied,
"The name is Dr.--."
("blessed are thoes who are big wheels,
for they shall go around in circles.")
Edward Dewry Jervey
And as the bombs
crash
all over the world
today
the real wise guys
know
that we've all
got to go chasing stars
again
in the hope
that we can get back
some of that
Kid Stuff
born two thousand years ago-
Frank Horne
Ballad of the Landlord
Landlord, landlord,
My roof has sprung a leak.
Don't you 'memberI told you about it
Way last week?
Landlord, landlord,
These steps is broken down.
When you come up yourself
It's a wonder you don't fall down.
Ten bucks you say I owe you?
Ten bucks you say is due?
Well, that's Ten Bucks more'n I'll pay you
Till you fix this house up new.
What? You gonna get eviction orders?
You gonna cut off my heat?
You gonna take my funiture and
Throw it in the street?
Um-huh! You talking high and mighty.
Talk on-till you get through.
You ain't gonna be able to say a word
If I land my fist on you.
Police! Police!
Come and get this man!
He's trying to ruin the goverment
And overturn the land!
Copper's whistle!
Patrol bell!
Arrest.
Precinct Station.
Iron cell.
Headlines in press:
MAN THREATENS LANDLORD
TENANT HELD NO BAIL
JUDGE GIVES NEGRO 90 DAYS IN COUNTY JAIL
Frank Marshall Davis
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smilled, but he poked out
His tongue and called me, "Nigger."
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December:
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.
Countee Cullen
Frederick Douglass
When its is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful
and terrible thing, needful to man as air,
usable as earth; when it belongs at last to all
when it is truly instinct, brain matter, diastole, systole,
reflex action; when it is finally won; when it is more
than the gaudy mumbo jumbo of politicians:
this man, this Douglass; this former slave, this Negro
beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world
where none is lonely, none hunted, alien,
this man, superb in love and logic, this man
shall be remembered. O, not with statues' rhetoric,
not with legends and poems and wreaths of bronze alone,
but with the lives grown out of his life, the lives
fleshing his dream of the beautiful, needful thing.
Robert Hayden
Conditional Love
Perhaps the most enduring failure in love
is that of not revealing one's true self.
The temptation to seem better than one
is, not to risk the rejection truth might bring,
is a perpetual one. We need great faith in
reality of love to dare to present ourselves
in naked trust to the person we love.
... He carries a bird that is caged: if we
conceal our true selves before love, then
we keep the bird safe only in confinement.
Open the cage, and the bird can truly live.
Sister Wendy Beckett "Cheisea Porelain, 1759
We have bigger houses and smaller families;
more conveniences, but lesstime;
we have more degrees, but less sense;
more knowledge, but less judgment;
more experts, but more problems; more
medicine, but less wellness.
We have multiplied our possessions,
but reduced our values. We talk too
much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We've learned how to make a living,
but not a life; we've added years
to life, not life to years. We've
been all the way to the moon and back,
but have trouble crossing the street
to meet the new neighbor.
We've conquered outer space, but not
inner space; we've cleaned up the air,
but polluted the soul; we've split the
atom, but not our prejudice. We have
higher incomes, but lower morals; we've
become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are the times of tall men, and
short character; steep profits, and
shallow relationships. These are the
times of world peace, but domestic
warfare; more leisure, but less fun;
more kinds of food, but less nutrition.
These are days of two incomes, but
more divorce; of fancier houses, but
broken homes. It is a time when there
is much in the show window and nothing
in the stockroom; a time when technology
can bring this letter to you, and a time
when you can choose either to make a
difference...or just hit delete."
the e-mail
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