||| POSTED AT REQUEST OF ORCASONIAN READER |||
Paul Robeson
Gwendolyn Brooks – 1917-2000
Gwendolyn Brooks – 1917-2000
That time
we all heard it,
cool and clear,
cutting across the hot grit of the day.
The major Voice.
The adult Voice
forgoing Rolling River,
forgoing tearful tale of bale and barge
and other symptoms of an old despond.
Warning, in music-words
devout and large,
that we are each other’s
harvest:
we are each other’s
business:
we are each other’s
magnitude and bond.
cool and clear,
cutting across the hot grit of the day.
The major Voice.
The adult Voice
forgoing Rolling River,
forgoing tearful tale of bale and barge
and other symptoms of an old despond.
Warning, in music-words
devout and large,
that we are each other’s
harvest:
we are each other’s
business:
we are each other’s
magnitude and bond.
Thank you for this poem, dear reader, whoever you are; and for the video of Paul Robeson singing “Old Man River; which gets me in tears every time. Chills. Both the poem and the song go perfectly together.