"Be careful what you swallow. Chew!" — Gwendolyn Brooks — — — #GwendolynBrooks #quote #quotes #care #careful #chew #swallow #belief #believe #think

#BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #BlackPoets #GwendolynBrooks

So the poem I tooted previously, We Real Cool, is likely Gwendolyn Brooks' most widely known poem. It's short, easy to read and understand, uses words like cool and gin and has immediate impact (We Die soon), so young people usually like it. But Ms Brooks has so much more to share. I'm putting out this next, longer poem as a thread because I think it is best presented that way. It's powerful stuff.

we are each other’s
harvest:
we are each other’s
business:
we are each other’s
magnitude and bond.

#TodaysPoem #Poetry #GwendolynBrooks

in memory of gwendolyn brooks who left us 22 years ago, this poem is everything.

To the Young Who Want to Die

Sit down. Inhale. Exhale.
The gun will wait. The lake will wait.
The tall gall in the small seductive vial
will wait will wait:
will wait a week: will wait through April.
You do not have to die this certain day.
Death will abide, will pamper your postponement.
I assure you death will wait. Death has
a lot of time. Death can
attend to you tomorrow. Or next week. Death is
just down the street; is most obliging neighbor;
can meet you any moment.

You need not die today.
Stay here—through pout or pain or peskyness.
Stay here. See what the news is going to be tomorrow.

Graves grow no green that you can use.
Remember, green’s your color. You are Spring.
#GwendolynBrooks #Poetry #TheOnlyWayOutIsThrough

This is definitely something I needed to see today somehow. Like a punch in the gut.

#poetry #GwendolynBrooks #death #stay

Art hurts. Art urges voyages & it is easier to stay at home
#GwendolynBrooks

Art hurts. Art urges voyages - & it is easier to stay at home #GwendolynBrooks