If a man is not faithful to his own individuality, then he can not by loyal to anything.
Claude McKay.
Poetry
By Claude McKay (1889 – 1948)
Sometimes I tremble like a storm-swept flower,
And seek to hide my tortured soul from thee.
Bowing my head in deep humility
Before the silent thunder of thy power.
Sometimes I flee before thy blazing light,
As from the specter of pursuing death;
Intimidated lest thy mighty breath,
Windways, will sweep me into utter night.
For oh, I fear they will be swallowed up–
The loves which are to me of vital worth,
My passion and my pleasure in the earth–
And lost forever in thy magic cup!
I fear, I fear my truly human heart
Will perish on the altar-stone of art!
Check out this excerpt of an audio recording of a James Baldwin speech. In it he says; “the artist’s struggle for integrity is a metaphor for the struggle of all human beings to become human beings.”
What kind of artist are you? What kind of artist do you want want to be? Interesting questions to contemplate.
A House in Taos
by Langston Hughes (1902 – 1967)
Rain
Thunder of the Rain God:
. .And we three
. .Smitten by beauty.
Thunder of the Rain God:
. .And we three
. .Weary, weary.
Thunder of the Rain God:
. .And you, she, and I
. .Waiting for nothingness.
Do you understand the stillness
. .Of this house
. ..In Taos
Under the thunder of the Rain God?
Sun
That there should be a barren garden
About this house in Taos
Is not so strange,
But that there should be three barren hearts
In this one house in Taos—
Who carries ugly things to show the sun?
Moon
Did you ask for the beaten brass of the moon?
We can buy lovely things with money,
You,she,and I,
Yet you seek,
As though you could keep,
This unbought loveliness of moon.
Wind
Touch our bodies, wind.
Our bodies are separate, individual things.
Touch our bodies, wind,
But blow quickly
Through the red, white, yellow skins
Of our bodies
To the terrible snarl,
Not mine,
Not yours,
Not hers,
But all one snarl of souls.
Blow quickly, wind,
Before we run back
Into the windlessness—
With our bodies—
Into the windlessness
Of our house in Taos.
Fourteen Lines 