Langston Hughes

Here’s a poem by James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902– May 22, 1967), American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri who was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry.

The Negro Speaks Of Rivers

I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

--Langston Hughes