African American Poetry: A Digital Anthology

William H.A. Moore, "Sonnet" (1925)

No wish for doing evil and no thought
Of doing good. The heart has wilful thirst
And oft times longs for drink that may come to naught.
Life is the flight which none of men have sought
And is an urge so shadowed that we durst
Not learn in its measure lest we stand accursed
In the great Presence of the Holy Gift we've sought.
Brother I hear you say, “It glowed in Thrace
And where proud Thebes held Africa’s great soul
Aloft a light forever rich and whole
In glory, beauty and the pride of race.”

But life is all for all, ’tis but the breath
Of seeming, the enhungered wish of death.


Published in Opportunity, February 1925
 

This page has tags: