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 yound
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.

Mysoul has grown deep like the rivers.

Langston Hughes / (qutote from African American Visual Aesthetics / David C Driskell )