The Root's Faves: The Poetry Edition

In honor of National Poetry Month, The Root's staff shares a few of our favorite stanzas from black poets, from old school (Hughes, Dunbar) to new school (Tupac).

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  1 of 17

  Paul Laurence Dunbar

  Courtesy of Famous Poets

  June 27, 1872-Feb. 9, 1906

  "We wear the mask that grins and lies,
  It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes, --
  This debt we pay to human guile;
  With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
  And mouth with myriad subtleties."

  Excerpted from "We Wear the Mask"

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  2 of 17

  Langston Hughes

  Courtesy of Wordpress

  Feb. 1, 1902-May 22, 1967

  "What happens to a dream deferred?
  Does it dry up
  Like a raisin in the sun?
  Or fester like a sore --
  And then run?"

  Excerpted from "Harlem"
  
  

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  3 of 17

  Claude McKay

  Courtesy of the University of Illinois

  Sept. 15, 1889-May 22, 1948

  "If we must die, let it not be like hogs
  Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
  While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs"

  Excerpted from "If We Must Die"
  
  

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  4 of 17

  Ntozake Shange

  Getty Images

  "my papa thot he was puerto rican & we wda been
  cept we waz just reglar niggahs wit hints of Spanish
  so off i made it to this 36 hour marathon dance
  con salsa con Ricardo"

  Excerpted from For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf

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  5 of 17

  Maya Angelou

  Getty Images

  "It's in the reach of my arms
  The span of my hips,
  The stride of my step,
  The curl of my lips.
  I'm a woman
  Phenomenally.
  Phenomenal woman,
  That's me."

  Excerpted from "Phenomenal Woman"

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  6 of 17

  Amiri Baraka

  Courtesy of Cole Geddy

  "When I die, the consciousness I carry I will to
  black people. May they pick me apart and take the
  Useful parts, the sweet meat of my feelings."

  Excerpted from "leroy"

   

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  7 of 17

  Elizabeth Alexander

  Courtesy of Yale University

  "On suffering, which is real.
  On the mouth that never closes,
  the air that dries the mouth"

  Excerpted from "Autumn Passage"

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  8 of 17

  Gwendolyn Brooks

  Courtesy of Black Girls Rock

  June 7, 1917-Dec. 3, 2000

  "We real cool. We
  Left school. We
  Lurk late. We
  Strike straight."

  Excerpted from "We Real Cool"

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  9 of 17

  Sonia Sanchez

  Courtesy of Black Girls Rock

  "nothing will keep
  us young you know
  not young men or
  women who spin
  their youth on
  cool playing sounds"

  Excerpted from "Personal Letter No. 3"

• 

  10 of 17

  Nikki Giovanni

  Courtesy of Nikki Giovanni

  "On a trip north I caught a cold and blew my nose
  giving oil to the Arab world
  I am so hip -- even my errors are correct
  I sailed east to reach west -- and had to round off the
  earth as I went
  The hair from my head thinned and gold was laid
  across three continents"

  Excerpted from "Ego Tripping"

• 

  11 of 17

  Rita Dove

  Courtesy of Indiana University

  "Velvet fruit, exquisite square
  I hold up to sniff
  Between finger and thumb -- "

  Excerpted from "Chocolate"

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  12 of 17

  Thomas Sayers Ellis

  Courtesy of The Poetry Foundation

  "When I awake I will be white, the color of law.
  I will be new, clean, good; and as pure as snow.
  I will remember 'being black' the way one
  experiences deja vu, as shadow-memory-feeling.
  Race will return to its original association with running
  and winning, though I will never have to do either
  (ever again) to prove myself Olympic, human or equal."

  Excerpted from "Race Change Operation"

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  13 of 17

  Lucille Clifton

  Courtesy of The Sister Project

  June 27, 1936-Feb. 13, 2010

  "these hips are big hips
  they need space to
  move around in.
  they don't fit into little
  petty places. these hips
  are free hips."

  Excerpted from "homage to my hips"

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  14 of 17

  June Jordan

  Courtesy of The Poetry Foundation

  July 9, 1936-June 14, 2002

  "Outside the leaves flame usual in darkness
  and the rain
  falls cool and blessed on the holy flesh
  the black men waiting on the corner for
  a womanly mirage
  I am amazed by peace"

  Excerpted from "Poem for My Love"

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  15 of 17

  Tupac Shakur

  Courtesy of Wordpress

  June 16, 1971-Sept. 13, 1996

  "Did u hear about the rose that grew from a crack
  in the concrete
  Proving nature's laws wrong it learned 2 walk
  without having feet"

  Excerpted from "The Rose That Grew From Concrete"

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  16 of 17

  Patricia Smith

  Courtesy of The Poetry Foundation

  "Gotta love us brown girls, munching on fat, swinging blue hips,
  decked out in shells and splashes, Lawdie, bringing them woo hips."

  Excerpted from "Hip-Hop Ghazal"

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  17 of 17

  John Murillo

  Courtesy of The Poetry Society

  "For me, the movie starts with a black man
  Leaping into an orbit of badges, tiny moons

  Catching the sheen of his perfect black afro."

  Excerpted from "Enter the Dragon"

   

   

 

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