The White House
by
Claude McKay (1891-1948)
Your door is shut against my tightened face,
And I am sharp as steel with discontent;
But I possess the courage and the grace
To bear my anger proudly and unbent.
The pavement slabs burn loose beneath my feet,
A chafing savage, down the decent street;
And passion rends my vitals as I pass,
Where boldly shines your shuttered door of glass,
Oh, I must search for wisdom every hour,
Deep in my wrathful bosom sore and raw,
And find in it the superhuman power
To hold me to the letter of your law!
Oh, I must keep my heart inviolate
Against the potent poison of your hate.
***
The prescience of Claude McKay, a prominent Jamaican-born figure in the “Harlem Renaissance” of the 1920″s?
Or just another case of the more things change the more they stay the same?
Sounds Like 1937
Category: Book Bites, Newsy Bites
Tags:Black Lives Matter, Claude McKay, cultural commentary, George Floyd Uprising, Harlem Renaissance writers and poets, police brutality, racism, The White House
The White House
by
Claude McKay (1891-1948)
Your door is shut against my tightened face,
And I am sharp as steel with discontent;
But I possess the courage and the grace
To bear my anger proudly and unbent.
The pavement slabs burn loose beneath my feet,
A chafing savage, down the decent street;
And passion rends my vitals as I pass,
Where boldly shines your shuttered door of glass,
Oh, I must search for wisdom every hour,
Deep in my wrathful bosom sore and raw,
And find in it the superhuman power
To hold me to the letter of your law!
Oh, I must keep my heart inviolate
Against the potent poison of your hate.
***
The prescience of Claude McKay, a prominent Jamaican-born figure in the “Harlem Renaissance” of the 1920″s?
Or just another case of the more things change the more they stay the same?
Holliday Vann
...is a Master Writer who is crawling, reaching with French-manicured fingertips to touch the lowest hem of Toni Morrison's garments in hopes of her name one day being whispered glowingly in the same sentence as Her name.
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