Poem-A-Day: The Banjo Player by Fenton Johnson

The Banjo Player by Fenton Johnson     There is music in me, the music of a peasant people. I wander through the levee, picking my banjo and singing my songs of    the cabin and the field. At the Last Chance Saloon I am as welcome    as the violets in March; there is always food and drink for me there,    and the dimes of those who love honest music. Behind the railroad    tracks the little children clap their hands and love me as they love Kris    Kringle. But I fear that I am a failure. Last night a woman called me a    troubadour. What is a troubadour?       Today's poem is in the public domain. About This Poem Fenton Johnson wrote "The Banjo Player" as part of a series of persona poems entitled African Nights, which was intended to form the core of his fourth collection of poetry. The finished collection, however, was never published. Anthology Featuring Johnson Black Voices (Signet Classics, 2001)             Poem-A-Day Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Browse the Poem-A-Day Archive. June 30, 2013 Fenton Johnson was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May 7, 1888. Johnson was a heavily anthologized poet, as well as a playwright and member of the Work Progress Administration's Federal Writers' Project during the Great Depression. He died in 1958. Related Poems Honky Tonk in Cleveland, Ohio by Carl Sandburg Beagle or Something by April Bernard Little Fugue by Marianne Boruch   Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.

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