Claude Mckay

Countee Cullen knew you, and you nectared him Lambent voice when Harlem was wrapped in night Artist and rebel, African singer of Grecian hymn Umbilical to Jamaica, nightingale in Nietzschean flight Deny not the laurels I lay at your feet Encourage me to measure as I sing your feat. Mentor of Langston from the village desk Chronicler of blackness in its untenderness Kingston remembers your ballads and text Ark of nation language, before the temptress Yarned with the tongue that feeds our bitterness.