"I will not allow one
prejudiced person or one million or one hundred million to blight
my life. I will not let prejudice or any of its attendant
humiliations and injustices bear me down to spiritual defeat. My
inner life is mine, and I shall defend and maintain its integrity
against all the powers of hell."
James Weldon Johnson, ed. (1871–1938). The Book of American Negro Poetry. 1922. |
The Creation |
AND God stepped out on space, | |
And He looked around and said, | |
“I’m lonely— | |
I’ll make me a world.” | |
And far as the eye of God could see | 5 |
Darkness covered everything, | |
Blacker than a hundred midnights | |
Down in a cypress swamp. | |
Then God smiled, | |
And the light broke, | 10 |
And the darkness rolled up on one side, | |
And the light stood shining on the other, | |
And God said, “That’s good!” | |
Then God reached out and took the light in His hands, | |
And God rolled the light around in His hands | 15 |
Until He made the sun; | |
And He set that sun a-blazing in the heavens. | |
And the light that was left from making the sun | |
God gathered it up in a shining ball | |
And flung it against the darkness, | 20 |
Spangling the night with the moon and stars. | |
Then down between | |
The darkness and the light | |
He hurled the world; | |
And God said, “That’s good!” | 25 |
Then God himself stepped down— | |
And the sun was on His right hand, | |
And the moon was on His left; | |
The stars were clustered about His head, | |
And the earth was under His feet. | 30 |
And God walked, and where He trod | |
His footsteps hollowed the valleys out | |
And bulged the mountains up. | |
Then He stopped and looked and saw | |
That the earth was hot and barren. | 35 |
So God stepped over to the edge of the world | |
And He spat out the seven seas; | |
He batted His eyes, and the lightnings flashed; | |
He clapped His hands, and the thunders rolled; | |
And the waters above the earth came down, | 40 |
The cooling waters came down. | |
Then the green grass sprouted, | |
And the little red flowers blossomed, | |
The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky, | |
And the oak spread out his arms, | 45 |
The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground, | |
And the rivers ran down to the sea; | |
And God smiled again, | |
And the rainbow appeared, | |
And curled itself around His shoulder. | 50 |
Then God raised His arm and He waved His hand | |
Over the sea and over the land, | |
And He said, “Bring forth! Bring forth!” | |
And quicker than God could drop His hand. | |
Fishes and fowls | 55 |
And beasts and birds | |
Swam the rivers and the seas, | |
Roamed the forests and the woods, | |
And split the air with their wings. | |
And God said, “That’s good!” | 60 |
Then God walked around, | |
And God looked around | |
On all that He had made. | |
He looked at His sun, | |
And He looked at His moon, | 65 |
And He looked at His little stars; | |
He looked on His world | |
With all its living things, | |
And God said, “I’m lonely still.” | |
Then God sat down | 70 |
On the side of a hill where He could think; | |
By a deep, wide river He sat down; | |
With His head in His hands, | |
God thought and thought, | |
Till He thought, “I’ll make me a man!” | 75 |
Up from the bed of the river | |
God scooped the clay; | |
And by the bank of the river | |
He kneeled Him down; | |
And there the great God Almighty | 80 |
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky, | |
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night, | |
Who rounded the earth in the middle of His hand; | |
This Great God, | |
Like a mammy bending over her baby, | 85 |
Kneeled down in the dust | |
Toiling over a lump of clay | |
Till He shaped it in His own image; | |
Then into it He blew the breath of life, | |
And man became a living soul. Amen. Amen. | 90 |