Countee Cullen
Countee Cullen
Countee Cullen, born as Coleman Rutherford, was an African American poet, author and scholar who was a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He pronounced his name "Coun-tay", not "Coun-tee"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth30 May 1903
CityLexington, KY
CountryUnited States of America
life-and-death grace life-is
Whatever lives is granted breath But by the grace and sufferance of Death.
giving music within
My poetry, I think, has become the way of my giving out what music is within me.
love
Your love to me was like an unread book.
agonizing hide tend
So in the dark we hide the heart that bleeds, And wait, and tend our agonizing seeds.
forgive-me forgiving needs
Lord, forgive me if my need Sometimes shapes a human creed.
cutting wife sorrow
Death cut the strings that gave me life, And handed me to Sorrow, The only kind of middle wife My folks could beg or borrow.
god fashion dark
Lord, I fashion dark gods, too, Daring even to give You Dark despairing features
heart glowing sick
Ever at Thy glowing altar Must my heart grow sick and falter, Wishing He I served were black.
jesus father heart
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, So I make an idle boast; Jesus of the twice-turned cheek Lamb of God, although I speak With my mouth thus, in my heart Do I play a double part.
book thumbs slumber
Africa? A book one thumbs Listlessly, till slumber comes.
fashion men black
Quaint, outlandish heathen gods Black men fashion out of rods
rendezvous
I have a rendezvous with life.
heart giving lovers
Give but a grain of the heart's rich seed, Confine some under cover, And when love goes, bid him God-speed. And find another lover.
past years snow
What is last year's snow to me, Last year's anything? The tree Budding yearly must forget How its past arose or set