Langston Hughes

“7 x 7 + love = An amount Infinitely above: 7 x 7 - love.”

“I wish the rent Was heaven sent.”

“Life is for the living.Death is for the dead.Let life be like music. And death a note unsaid.”

“The past has been a mint Of blood and sorrow. That must not be True of tomorrow.”

“Gather up In the arms of your love—Those who expect No love from above.”

“What happens to a dream deferred? / Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”

“Believing everything she readIn the daily news,(No in-between to choose)She thought that onlyOne side won,Not that BOTHMight lose.”

“I, too, sing America.I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchenWhen company comes,But I laugh,And eat well,And grow strong.Tomorrow,I'll be at the tableWhen company comes.Nobody'll dareSay to me,"Eat in the kitchen,"Then.Besides,They'll see how beautiful I amAnd be ashamed--I, too, am America.”

“The calm, Cool face of the river, Asked me for a kiss”

“How still,How strangely stillThe water is today,It is not goodFor waterTo be so still that way.~ "Sea Calm”

“Sometimes a crumb fallsFrom the tables of joy, Sometimes a boneIs flung.To some peopleLove is given, To othersOnly heaven.”

“Lawrence has a wonderful hill in it, with a university on top and the first time I ran away from home, I ran up the hill and looked across the world: Kansas wheat fields and the Kaw River, and I wanted to go some place, too. I got a whipping for it.”

“Life is a egg you have to be patient and carefull with it or it will brake”

“Yet the ivory gods, And the ebony gods, And the gods of diamond-jade, Are only silly puppet gods That people themselves Have made.-”

“Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.”

“I loved my friendHe went away from meThere's nothing more to sayThe poem ends,Soft as it began-I loved my friend.”

“I stay cool, and dig all jive,That's the way I stay alive.My motto, as I live and learn, isDig and be dugIn return.”

“I swear to the Lord,I still can't see,Why Democracy means,Everybody but me. ”

“Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it.”

“Oh, God of Dust and Rainbows,Help us to seeThat without the dust the rainbowWould not be.”

“To some peopleLove is given,To othersOnly Heaven.”

“Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.”

“Folks, I'm telling you,birthing is hardand dying is mean-so get yourself a little loving in between.”

“...the only way to get a thing done is to start to do it, then keep on doing it, and finally you'll finish it,....”

“I asked you, baby,If you understood-You told me that you didn't,But you thought you would.”

“Hold fast to dreams,For if dreams dieLife is a broken-winged bird,That cannot fly.”

“Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain-- All, all the stretch of these great green states-- And make America again!”