Arna Bontemps, "Hope" (1924)
Upon the waves floats and empty bark.
The stars go out; the raindrops fall,
And through the night comes a ghostly call--
My lone and dismal life's a-float
Upon the seas like an empty boat.
Above the heights where the sea-gulls soar,
The thunder lifts its resonant roar.
Like a jagged arrow a flash is sent,
That splits the clouds with a double rent.
And just beyond my bark that drifts,
Moonbeams steal through the kindly rifts.
Published in The Crisis, August 1924