Literature and the Love of Life

presented by Dr Kelp

2007-03-22

Langston Hughes

I have just discovered a wonderful American poet called Langston Hughes. I know that all the literati in the US will have heard of Hughes but down here is New Zealand he doesn't feature on our literary scene. I was listening to the podcast from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/ and they were reading some of Hughes poems. They then had a recording of him reading his own works. Awesome, what a voice, what touching poetry. I particularly enjoyed some words from "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"

I’ve known rivers:

 

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

This seemed very deep to me. It ties back into Hughes visit to Africa when he was a young man in the 30's.

Kind Regards

DK

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