April 20, 2010
 
Continuing an April tradition, Huntington News Network is celebrating April -- National Poetry Month -- With a Poem a Day from Knopf : Two by Langston Hughes
 

 
Special to Huntingtonnews.net
 
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Black Workers
 
The bees work.
Their work is taken from them.
We are like the bees—
But it won't last
Forever.
 
Black Dancers
 
We
Who have nothing to lose
Must sing and dance
Before the riches
Of the world
Overcome
Us.
 
We
Who have nothing to lose
Must laugh and dance
Lest our laughter
Goes from
Us.

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Keep Clicking: Go to the Poem-A-Day website to comment on this poem, share it on Facebook and Twitter, and much more. Read more from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes Reflecting on the powerful "we" in Hughes's poems, we chose the following audio clip from Poetry in Person: James Merrill on not using the first person in poetry

Buy the Book

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Excerpt from THE COLLECTED POEMS OF LANGSTON HUGHES. Copyright © 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
 
We welcome your feedback. Please send any thoughts or questions to aaknopf@randomhouse.com.