Good evening everyone and welcome to the last poem for Black History Month. I will end the month with the iconic, brilliant poet called Langston Hughes and his work—
The Negro Speaks of Rivers.
I love this poem!
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
(To W.E.B. DuBois)
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.
KG Bethlehem 