Gwendolyn Brooks
Gwendolyn Brooks
Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brookswas an American poet and teacher. She was the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer when she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1950, for her second collection, Annie Allen...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth7 June 1917
CityTopeka, KS
CountryUnited States of America
happening
Look at what's happening in this world. Every day there's something exciting or disturbing to write about. With all that's going on, how could I stop?
color two white
When white and black meet today, sometimes there is a ready understanding that there has been an encounter between two human beings. But often there is only, or chiefly, an awareness that Two Colors are in the room.
weed track magic
There are no magics or elves / Or timely godmothers to guide us. We are lost, must / Wizard a track through our own screaming weed.
grief fuel fool
beware the easy griefs / that fool and fuel nothing.
grief mind all-time
I swear to keep the dead upon my mind, / Disdain for all time to be overglad.
running mean thinking
I don't want people running around saying Gwen Brooks's work is intellectual. That makes people think instantly about obscurity. It shouldn't have to mean that, but it often seems to.
live-in-the-moment lasts defense
My last defense / Is the present tense.
poetry attention lines
I tell poets that when a line just floats into your head, don't pay attention 'cause it probably has floated into somebody else's head.
running morning men
There can be no whiter whiteness than this one: An insurance man's shirt on its morning run.
mississippi
Nothing could stop Mississippi.
Do not be afraid of no, Who has so far, so very far to go.
this-life
What, what am I to do with all of this life?
song battle slappers
Live not for Battles Won. Live not for The-End-of-the-Song. Live in the along.
real school june
We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon.