Poetry - James Weldon Johnson (moboreader .TXT) š
- Author: James Weldon Johnson
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How she looked at him so ādmirinā, anā jes kinder glanced at me.
Den I knowād to win dat gal, I sho would need some othah means
āSides a-hanginā āround big meetinā in a suit oā homespun jeans.
Wāen dey blowād de hoān fuā preachinā, anā de crowd all went inside,
I jes felt ez doh Iād like tah go off in de woods anā hide.
So I stayād outside de meetinā, setān underneatā de trees,
Seemed to me I sot der ages, wid ma elbows on ma knees.
Wāen dey sung dat hymn, āNobody knows de trouble dat I see,ā
Seemād to me dat dey wuz singinā eveh word oā it fuā me.
Jes how long I might haā sot der, actinā like a cussed fool,
I donāt know, but it jes happenād dat I lookād anā saw Samās mule.
Anā de thought come slowly tricklinā thoo ma brain right der anā den,
Dat, perhaps, wid some persuasion, I could make dat mule ma frenā.
Anā I jes kepā on a-thinkinā, anā I kepā a-lookinā ārounā,
Tel I spied two great big sanā spurs right close by me on de grounā.
Well, I took dem spurs anā put em underneatā oā Caesarās saddle,
So deyād press down in his backbone soon ez Sam had got a-straddle.
āTwuz a pretty ticklish job, anā jes ez soon ez it wuz done,
I went back wāere I wuz setān fuā to wait anā see de fun.
Purty soon heah come de people, jes a-swaāminā out de doā,
Talkinā ābout de āpowāful sermonāā āānevah heahād de likes befoā.ā
How de āmonahs fell convictedā jes de same ez lumps oā lead,
How dat some wuz still a-layinā same es if deyād been struck dead.
Anā to rectly heah come Liza, Sam a-strollinā by her side,
Anā it seemād to me dat darkyās smile wuz ābout twelve inches wide.
Look to me like he had swelled up to ābout twice his natchul size,
Anā I heahād him say, āIād like to be yoā āscort to-night, Miss Lize.ā
Den he made a bow jes like heās gwine to make a speech in school,
Anā walkād jes ez proud ez Marse John over to untie his mule,
Wāen Samās foot fust touched de stirrup he knowād der wuz sumpān wrong;
āCuz de mule begin to tremble anā to sorter side along.
Wen Sam raised his weight to mount him, Caesar bristled up his ear,
Wāen Sam sot down in de saddle, den dat mule cummenced to rear.
Anā he reared anā pitched anā caperād, only ez a mule kin pitch,
Tel he flung Sam clean fāom off him, landed him squarā in a ditch.
Wen dat darky riz, well raly, I felt kinder bad fuā him;
He had bust dem cheap stoā britches fāom de center to de rim.
All de plug hat dat wuz lefā him wuz de brim arounā his neck,
Smearād wid mud fāom top to bottom, well, he wuz a sight, I āspeck.
Wuz de folks a-laffinā? Well, suā, I jes sholy thought deyād busā;
Wuz Sam laffinā? āTwuz de fusā time dat I evah heahād him cuss.
Wāile Sam slinkād off thoo de backwoods I walkād slowly home wid Lize,
Wāen I axed her jes one question der wuz sumpān in her eyes
Made me know der wuz no need oā any answer beinā said,
Anā I felt jes like de whole world wuz a-spinninā ārounā ma head.
So I said, āLize, wāen we marry, musā I weah some stoā-bought cloāes?ā
She says, āJeans is good enough fuā any poā folks, heaben knows!ā
(A Negro Sermon)
And God stepped out on space,
And He looked around and said,
āIām lonelyā ā
Iāll make me a world.ā
And far as the eye of God could see
Darkness covered everything,
Blacker than a hundred midnights
Down in a cypress swamp.
Then God smiled,
And the light broke,
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other,
And God said, āThatās good!ā
Then God reached out and took the light in His hands,
And God rolled the light around in His hands
Until He made the sun;
And He set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.
And the light that was left from making the sun
God gathered it up in a shining ball
And flung it against the darkness,
Spangling the night with the moon and stars.
Then down between
The darkness and the light
He hurled the world;
And God said, āThatās good!ā
Then God himself stepped downā ā
And the sun was on His right hand,
And the moon was on His left;
The stars were clustered about His head,
And the earth was under His feet.
And God walked, and where He trod
His footsteps hollowed the valleys out
And bulged the mountains up.
Then He stopped and looked and saw
That the earth was hot and barren.
So God stepped over to the edge of the world
And He spat out the seven seas;
He batted His eyes, and the lightnings flashed;
He clapped His hands, and the thunders rolled;
And the waters above the earth came down,
The cooling waters came down.
Then the green grass sprouted,
And the little red flowers blossomed,
The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,
And the oak spread out his arms,
The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,
And the rivers ran down to the sea;
And God smiled again,
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around His shoulder.
Then God raised His arm and He waved His hand
Over the sea and over the land,
And He said, āBring forth! Bring forth!ā
And quicker than God could drop His hand,
Fishes and fowls
And beasts and birds
Swam the rivers and the seas,
Roamed the forests and the woods,
And split the air with their wings.
And God said, āThatās good!ā
Then God walked around,
And God looked around
On all that He had made.
He looked at His sun,
And He looked at His moon,
And He looked at His little stars;
He looked on His world
With all its living things,
And God said, āIām lonely still.ā
Then God sat down
On the side of a hill where He could think;
By a deep, wide river He sat down;
With His head in His hands,
God thought and thought,
Till He thought, āIāll make me a man!ā
Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled Him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the
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