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
night slappers ready
Even if you are not ready for day it cannot always be night.
leadership desire fit
Do not desire to fit in. Desire to oblige yourselves to lead.
wheat aging
As you get older, you find that often the wheat, disentangling itself from the chaff, comes out to meet you.
fighting expression taverns
What I'm fighting for now in my work... for an expression relevant to all manner of blacks, poems I could take into a tavern, into the street, into the halls of a housing project.
moments learning-to-love
She was learning to love moments. To love moments for themselves.
crush clay language
I like the concentration, the crush; I like working with language, as others like working with clay, or notes.
courage brave fearful
It is brave to be involved. To be not fearful to be unresolved.
army men two
Words can do wonderful things. They pound, purr. They can urge, they can wheedle, whip, whine. They can sing, sass, singe. They can churn, check, channelize. They can be a "Hup two three four." They can forge a fiery army of a hundred languid men.
teaching bars preference
Truth-tellers are not always palatable. There is a preference for candy bars.
clumsiness talkers
I am a writer perhaps because I am not a talker.
fighting firsts fiddle
First fight. Then fiddle.
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.
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.