Poetry Slam Tuesdays (uhh, sorta): Langston feels my pain

Okay, okay, so it's now 12:51 AM on Wednesday, according to my best friend, my Macbook, but I couldn't bear the thought of missing out on a poetry slam two weeks in a row! Gasp!

I especially can't keep skipping out on poetry slams now that I have my mom's poetry collection at hand. Especially not when The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes is included in said collection. I really love reading through this particular collection, because there are tiny, numbered slips of white paper throughout it, marking specific poems by title. It's my mom's handwriting. My guess is she read some (or all) of these to her students.

This is one of them.

Out of Work

I walked de streets till
De shoes wore off my feet.
I done walked de streets till
De shoes wore off my feet.
Been lookin' for a job
So's that I could eat.

I couldn't find no job
So I went to de WPA.
Couldn't find no job
So I went to de WPA.
WPA man told me:
You got to live here a year and a day.

A year and a day, Lawd,
In this great big lonesome town!
A year and a day in this
Great big lonesome town!
I might starve for a year but
That extra day would get me down.

Did you ever try livin'
On two-bits minus two?
I say did you ever try livin'
On two-bits minus two?
Why don't you try it, folks,
And see what it would do to you?

Langston, I feel ya.

Poetry Slam Tuesdays: Dreams, Deferred

When I was a freshman at IU, my African American lit course professor read this poem to our class one day when we were studying Langston Hughes, and I'll never forget it. That class wasn't a lecture, it was a show. Every time I read it, I hear his voice.

I hope he's still teaching, and still reading great poems to his students. And I hope they're listening.

Same in Blues
By Langston Hughes

I said to my baby,
Baby, take it slow.
I can't, she said, I can't!
I got to go!

There's a certain
amount of traveling
in a dream deferred.

Lulu said to Leonard,
I want a diamond ring.
Leonard said to Lulu,
You won't get a goddamn thing!

A certain
amount of nothing
in a dream deferred.

Daddy, daddy, daddy,
All I want is you.
You can have me baby—
but my lovin' days is through.

A certain
amount of impotence
in a dream deferred.

Three parties
On my party line—
But that third party,
Lord, ain't mine!

There's liable
to be confusion
in a dream deferred.

From river to river,
Uptown and down,
There's liable to be confusion
when a dream gets kicked around.

For more Tuesday poetry fun, check out today's featured poem at The Writer's Almanac, "Un Bel Di" by Gerald Locklin. It made me freakin' teary eyed earlier. I think I'm a little homesick. But then again, what doesn't make me teary eyed?