Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Let Me Not Lose My Dream" (1917)
with eyes unseeing through their glaze of tears,
Let me not falter, though the rungs of fortune perish
as I fare above the tumult, praying purer air,
Let me not lose the vision, gird me. Powers that toss the worlds, I pray!
Hold me, and guard, lest anguish tear my dreams away!
First published in The Crisis, October 1917