Member Poem

The renaissance
Not greek
But Harlem
Don’t sleep today
Admire the stardom

Duke Ellington
A jazz musician
Orchestral jazz
With a bit of rhythm
That makes you want to hum along
But the trick is
There are no lyrics in this song
It’s all instrument
It makes you think
Is this all just a figment
Of my imagination
And how it was just a stigma
That blacks weren’t as talented as whites
That only if you were light
Would you ever be seen under the light
Of the stage
And if you weren’t white
You’d have to be a mage
And trick the eyes of the audience
Into seeing you for them
And to keep them from turning to the next page
In this chapter
Of the renaissance

On the next page we have Louis Armstrong
Who’s top talent was the trumpet
And vocals that will make you wish that you could prolong
The moment that the beautiful notes
First hit your ear
And made you feel happy
And made you let go of any and all fear
Sometimes I wonder how great it would be
If we could all go back then…
Or maybe...
If he
Could come here

Last and final page of this book that
We call the renaissance
Introducing the great
Langston Hughes
And no he did not sing the blues
He wrote the most elegant
Descriptive poems
In a tone that would make you feel
Like you were witnessing greatness
And it’d remind you of the hum of Duke
And the sound of Armstrong
And once again you feel as though they belong
Belong in our country
In our culture
In our society
And you’d say
“Enough of this. I want to see!
I want to see the passion of black culture
That I’ve been so blind to”
And so the story
Of the Harlem Renaissance goes
And now dear reader,
It’s time for this book close