Written By: D. Collins 7/7/25
I know the names of some of the greatest to ever dawn black skin.
Dr. Charles Drew, Miles Davis, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin.
Generations from now their achievements will be overlooked.
Due to coordinated efforts to remove them from history books.
There were the Buffalo Soldiers and Tuskegee Airmen.
Maya Angelou and descriptive writings of Toni Morrison.
We had Dr. Martin Luther King and Muhammad Ali.
Who gave hope to a population of people like me.
We've endured the longest deprivation mankind has faced.
You cannot remove something that refuses to be erased.
We've heard broken promises that never came about.
The Caged Bird Still Sings loudly from the top of the mount.
Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart, for his purity, by definition, is unassailable. ~Author James Baldwin
Humans drown themselves in ego by thinking they're worth
the honorable title, "I am among the innocent upon earth."
There has been no human born since Jesus, of pure divinity
His life was never sullied, nor blemished by corruptibility
Angels sang of His innocence, chaste and immaculate virtue
for men of all nations give way to temptations. This is true
We are flawed with faults. Underserving the seat on a throne
To claim we have untainted rectitude, I could never condone
Unassailable purity is not a phrase any human can live up to.
If one thinks he has irreproachable decency, don't misconstrue
such a self-centered thought as one of the meek and humble
The pure of heart has impeccable integrity and will not stumble
One who believes he's great is one I would chide and berate
for that one hungers for power and glory that he will never sate
Insidious, the hypocrite who claims innocence. He will find grief
in assuming he is sacrosanct, for that would be a profane belief
America
I used to love America we never said the USA
as a young seaman, it was the place to buy T. shirts, jeans
and white I never forget the name, Arrow shirts
the people full of optimism everything was possible
and the workers were relatively affluent.
the racial aspect never bothered us; we saw black workers
and white workers toiling on the harbour.
I was reading much back then and discovered I had lived
in a bubble.
In New Orleans, I came face to face with racism I hat
met an enormous black foreman he invited me to
the town centre the restaurant I liked he said we could
not go into, you see, they don´t want people of my colour.
OK, we went to a lesser place had a splendid meal
listened to jazz music.
He insisted following me to the ship, and I remember some
white shouting lover. Onboard I read a novel by
James Baldwin, I didn´t sleep that night
Years later coming back to the USA, it had changed was
a more challenging place and there was on the radio,
endless talk
about the peril of socialism and the need to go to war.
I was older now and self- educated, knew it was no point
arguing with people who had been brainwashed.
Zora Neal saw that Their Eyes Were Watching God, when
Toni Morrison heard The Song of Solomon, and
James Baldwin Told It on the Mountain, while
W.E.B. DuBois embraced The Souls of Black Folks
Richard Wright was a Black Boy, that’s why
Dr. Maya Angelo Knew Why the Caged Bird Sang
Iyana Vanzant found Peace Within Pieces, when
Lorraine Hansberry ate a Raisin in the Sun, while
Terry McMillian was Waiting to Exhale
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.