"Poetry" by Claude McKay

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend May 19, 2018   Poetry   Claude McKay

Sometimes I tremble like a storm-swept flower, And seek to hide my tortured soul from thee, Bowing my head in deep humility Before the silent thunder of thy power. Sometimes I flee before thy blazing light, As from the specter of pursuing death; Intimidated lest thy mighty breath, Windways, will sweep me into utter night. For oh, I fear they will be swallowed up— The loves which are to me of vital worth, My passion and my pleasure in the earth— And lost forever in thy magic cup! I fear, I fear my truly human heart Will perish on the altar-stone of art!                This poem is in the public domain. About This Poem   "Poetry" was published in Harlem Shadows: The Poems of Claude McKay (Harcourt Brace and Company, 1922).   Claude McKay was born in Jamaica in 1889. His collections of poetry include Songs of Jamaica (Gardner, 1912) and Constab Ballads (Watts, 1912). He died in 1948. Photo credit: Carl Van Vechten Poetry by McKay   Complete Poems (University of Illinois Press, 2004) "These Poems" by June Jordan "Poetry" by Marianne Moore "How Do I Know When a Poem Is Finished?" by Naomi Shihab Nye May Guest Editor: Matthew Shenoda   Thanks to Matthew Shenoda, author of Tahrir Suite: Poems (TriQuarterly Books, 2014), who curated Poem-a-Day this month. Read more about Shenoda and our guest editors for the year. Help Support Poem-a-Day   If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a monthly donation or one-time gift to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! 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.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038