Poem.

Class started on Monday. I returned from my trip on Tuesday. Now, I play catch up, during which I still intend to post stories and thoughts from our 11-day cross-country trip.

This thought comes from the New Orleans' riverfront. We encountered the city after a long drive in Texas, so we decided to stop and explore the Vieux Carré. Though we had seen the Mississippi river twice before during our trip, they were always from the confines of our car. That day marked my first acquaintance with the grand river, which made me think of a beloved Langston Hughes poem:

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.



Powerful, eh? I highly recommend listening to Hughes read the poem himself here. He also describes what led him to write 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers.'


OK. back to anatomy. More on that subject later.