Good evening, daddy! Ain't you heard The boogie-woogie rumble Of a dream deferred? Trilling the treble And twining the bass Into midnight ruffles Of cat-gut lace.

I will not take 'but' for an answer. Negroes have been looking at democracy's 'but' too long.

Life for me ain't been no crystal stair

Go home and write / a page tonight. / And let that page come out of you - / Then, it will be true.

I am the American heartbreak- The rock on which Freedom Stumped its toe.

Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.

Gather out of star-dust, Earth-dust, Cloud-dust, Storm-dust, And splinters of hail, One handful of dream-dust, Not for sale.