My nominee this year is Gwendolyn Brooks (right), born in 1917 in Topeka, Kansas, but known throughout much of her 83 years of life as a Chicagoan. Among her many honors, in 1950 she became the 1st African American person to receive a Pulitzer Prize, and she served as Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968. Brooks was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1985 to 1986.Perhaps my favorite of Brooks' poems is We Real Cool (1966), which contains the luscious line "We Jazz June." But it ends sadly, and so here I reprint another, more uplifting work of hers -- and welcome your own poetry nominations.
Say to them,
say to the down-keepers,
the sun-slappers,
the self-soilers,
the harmony-hushers,
"even if you are not ready for day
it cannot always be night."
You will be right.
For that is the hard home-run.
Live not for battles won.
Live not for the-end-of-the-song.
Live in the along.
