Sheldon's Top 5: African-American Poetry

In a pattern similar to my previous post, here are my Top 5 favorite quotes from The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry. It's so hard to narrow it down to just 5, but here it goes:

"I cannot find those mild and gracious words

to clothe the carnage.

. . . .

Reword our specific discontent

into some plaintive melody,

a little whine, a little whimper,

not too much--and no rebellion!"

- To the Pale Poets by Ray Durem (pg. 5)

"we

a hambone people

we a

gumbo gulosh

we

a gospel feast

of rhythm and rice

bibles and dice

fire and ice

we dark

we black"

- A Hambone Gospel by Lamont B. Steptoe (pg. 54)

"They'll let you play anybody but you,

that's pretty much what they will do."

- A Poem for Players by Al Young (pg. 119)

"The golden days are gone. Why do we wait

So long upon the marble steps, blood

Falling from our open wounds? and why

Do our black faces search the empty sky?

Is there something we have forgotten? some precious thing

We have lost, wandering in strange lands?"

- Nocturne at Bethesda by Arna Bontemps (pg. 297)

"Lift ev'ry voice and sing,

Till earth and heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise

High as the list'ning skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,

Let us march on till victory is won."

-Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing, the Black National Anthem, by James Weldon Johnson (pg. 357)

Any other poems or quotes that touched people?