Claude McKay

Poetry encompasses all subjects and emotions, even those that cause discomfort.

Today we belatedly note the birth date of Claude McKay (September 15, 1890 – May 22, 1948), Jamaican-American writer and poet who was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance.

The Lynching

His Spirit in smoke ascended to high heaven.
His father, by the cruelest way of pain,
Had bidden him to his bosom once again;
The awful sin remained still unforgiven.
All night a bright and solitary star
(Perchance the one that ever guided him,
Yet gave him up at last to Fate's wild whim)
Hung pitifully o'er the swinging char.
Day dawned, and soon the mixed crowds came to view
The ghastly body swaying in the sun
The women thronged to look, but never a one
Showed sorrow in her eyes of steely blue;
And little lads, lynchers that were to be,
Danced round the dreadful thing in fiendish glee.

--Claude McKay