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Great book and a great voice. It's better than a History Textbook in the times of the Black struggle during the 30's and 40's. I recommend it strongly for anyone who wants to teach or study modern Black History .
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Maybe I'm just hopeful on this day, but this seemed like as good a time as any to review this book. While some are dated and some are time-capsule, many of the best poems collected herein (all the poems that were published during his lifetime) are nearly as relevant today as the day they were written. Now we as a nation place enough emphasis on class and wallet capacity that we're more often (in the systemic sense) willing to look past skincolor (so long as the checks clear) that things have certainly changed, but you'll still hear the ring of today's truth in many of these poems. Because Langston commented on so many of the topical events of his day, this book can be seen as history via poetry... as filtered through Langston's lense, of course.
For as right on as are Projection, I, Too, Wealth, Wisdom and War, Advertisement for the Waldorf-Astoria, etc..., one can't help but wonder while reading his poems praising Stalin how much Langston knew of the Great Purge or the Ukranian famine. Then again, The Gulag Archipelago Volume 1: An Experiment in Literary Investigation (P.S.) had not come out yet, so I don't know what other means of access he'd have had back then. Still, this is what history is. Direct hits and misfires. Rights and wrongs. For better and for worse, Langston's poems are poetry, history and commentaries on history.
Langston was so clearly a music lover that I often think of his poems in musical terms, especially the ones he wrote nearly as small musicals, like The Black Clown, The Big-Timer and the whole Ask Your Mama/12 Moods for Jazz section. If I had big money, one of my major contributions to the arts would be to commission William Parker (of Corn Meal Dance, Mayor of Punkville, O'Neal's Porch, Raining on the Moon, etc...) to do whatever it is he wants with any of these poems that he wants, whether they be the ones that already have musical guidance from Langston or not. These works could and should be brought back into people's lives in a larger way.
There are many kinds of poets. Some are concerned with language for language's sake. Langston was not one of those poets. Langston was in the family of Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan, America, My Brother, My Blood / América, mi hermano, mi sangre: A Latin American Song of Suffering and Resistance (Ocean Sur) (Spanish Edition) and The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde poets. Masters of The Word? Yes, but only so far as the word can help lift up or bring the best of human truths to rise forth.
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Langston Hughes: Poet, truth-teller, gifted wordsmith who can cover both the sacred and profane. A fighter, a dreamer, a student, a sailor. He speaks to everyone, any color or creed. He speaks to oppressed people who will never give up. He speaks to me, and to you. He speaks loudly and clearly, with a unique, indelible hand. His poems and stories stand tall...his defiance and dignity remains an inspiration to anyone who has had a "dream deferred", but "gathers out of cloud-dust, storm-dust, and splinters of hail, one handful of dream-dust, not for sale".
The Last Feast of Belshazzar (Langston Hughes)
The jeweled entrails of pomegranetes
Bled on the marble floor
The jewel-heart of a virgin broke at the
golden door
The laughter of a drunken lord hid the sob
of a silken whore
Mene,
wrote a strange hand
Mene Tekel Upharsin,-
And death stood at the door
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The book is worth purchasing for the biographical background. His youth and adulthood were extremely tough and lonely. Hughes seems to have lost his religion early in life.
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Excellent book and historical treasure that I intend to pass down to my grandchildren in the future.
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