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
race ideas black
I don't like the idea of the black race being diluted out of existence. I like the idea of all of us being here.
brother dark rejection
I who have gone the gamut from an almost angry rejection of my dark skin by some of my brainwashed brothers and sisters to a surprised queenhood in the new Black sunam qualified to enter at least the kindergarten of new consciousness now... I have hopes for myself.
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.
love-is hands wells
To be in love Is to touch things with a lighter hand. In yourself you stretch, you are well.
jewels pearls milk
With melted opals for my milk, Pearl-leaf for my cracker.
poetry-is
The poetry is myself.
running morning men
There can be no whiter whiteness than this one: An insurance man's shirt on its morning run.
holes notes ifs
I shall create! If not a note, a hole./If not an overture, a desecration.
being-yourself important poet
Be yourself. Don't imitate other poets. You are as important as they are.
running song home
Say to them, say to the down-keepers, the sun-slappers, the self-soilers, the harmony-hushers, "Even if you are not ready for day it cannot always be night." You will be right. For that is the hard home-run. Live not for battles won. Live not for the-end-of-the-song. Live in the along.
mississippi
Nothing could stop Mississippi.
reporters
I've always thought of myself as a reporter.
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.