Last week we read the elegant words of Langston Hughes, and this week we continue with the unofficial Harlem Renaissance theme we’ve got going! If you’ve been here a while, scroll down and enjoy! If you’re new to the column, I’ll break it down for you: Each edition will include two poems, the first being a featured piece written by a famous poet that will be analyzed and interpreted according to my point of view. Of course, everyone’s interpretation is different and valid, and the comment section will be open for any further discussion. The second piece is written by yours truly and will be open to complete interpretation and analysis. Go forth, enjoy, and as you read, remember: “It is not what you look at that matters, it is what you see.” – Henry David Thoreau

Poem One: Translation by Anne Spencer
We trekked into a far country,
My friend and I.
Our deeper content was never spoken,
But each knew all the other said.
He told me how calm his soul was laid
By the lack of anvil and strife.
“The wooing kestrel,” I said, “mutes his mating-note
To please the harmony of this sweet silence.”
And when at the day’s end
We laid tired bodies ’gainst
The loose warm sands,
And the air fleeced its particles for a coverlet;
When star after star came out
To guard their lovers in oblivion—
My soul so leapt that my evening prayer
Stole my morning song!

Thoughts: In perhaps one of the most beautiful poems I have read this year, our speaker describes a love like no other on the perfect night. She notes “Our deeper content was never spoken, / But each knew all the other said.”, which amplifies the closeness and intimacy of the lovers in the poem. Although neither explicitly express their feelings it is more than understood that “friends” is not a sufficient title for the relationship. Away from the “anvil” of work and the stresses of everyday life, the two people in this poem are simply enjoying each other’s company on an adventure into “a far country” which is much more romantic than we are first led to believe based on the opening two lines of the piece. At the climax of the night with our two companions staring into the night sky and admiring the stars while they lay in the sand, the speaker falls asleep in total bliss and awakens happier than ever. The final two lines of the poem perplexed me and my fellow journalists all week, but we came to the collective opinion that the “evening prayer” stealing our speaker’s “morning song” is, in fact, a prayer that the joy and “oblivion” of the night before would continue, as it was nothing short of a perfect night of adventure and love; surely a night any one of of us would want to carry on for eternity. A stunningly deep and beautiful poem.

Poem Two: Constellation by D.C.

My jaw drops as she seductively glides across the tile floor,

Unaware of the incomparable beauty she holds.

Unaware of the affectionate attention she holds

In my soul.

She is a budding flower, bursting open in heavenly abundance,

The sprinkled dew submitting to her breaching petals.

I am overwhelmed with each capturing universe found in her eyes,

My heart soaked with fascination and blissful oblivion.

This starry night is fit for lovers’ dreams,

But no sky could contain her stellar beauty; my muse, the stars, are shadowed by my love.

-D.C.

Thank you for reading this week’s poems! Make sure to tune in next week for more intriguing poetry on A Poem For Your Thoughts!