Inspired by master poet Langston Hughes, I dust and dream inside what meaning grace poems offer
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The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes catapulted this invisible man into the light; Hughes was a black man in 1926 America and therefore had no voice.
Or so believed the ignorant. Hughes wrote poetry that uplifted invisible people of all colors.
I cannot understand his Black American experience and yet I do understand the words of this poem found in A classic collection of poems by a master of American verse, Selected Poems of Langston Hughes titled,
Dream Dust
Gather out of star-dust
Earth-dust,
Cloud-dust,
Storm-dust,
And splinters of hail,
One handful of dream-dust
Not for sale.
Don't we all carry bits of dream dust through life? The concept captures the imagination and for me, generated a scene around the stuff of stars.
At Auction, my response to Dream Dust
She was not lost, yet she stood among the lost children, dirty urchins with raggedy clothes and sad eyes. A sunrise song might cheer them. White foam rises upon the waves! Stunned silence. Her merry eyes dropped like fallen petals.
Then appeared before her worn boots, still as stone. She studied the stiff apron, flaxen hair woven thick as her own, eyes blue like robin's eggs. Sparks ignited her chest, flaming warm and bright. She had not been lost but she felt found.
This child, sang the woman's voice, speckled as a spring egg, thin as a spear.
Gleaming silver bands blocked sight of the woman: hairy muscled shoulders, teeth picked clean, breath of salmon. This child? His was hearty disbelief. Nobility won't become the pale face of a northern child speckled with starlight.
A child burned by constellations the woman trilled, they shape her fate!
Bulky knees bent, eyes brown as root leaned close, gentling the child. How does her fate read?
Blue orbs danced in daylight. Well.
His rough hewn hand trembled, palm up. The world smiles upon a face sprinkled with good fortune.
Placing her hand in his, the child winked.
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Sea Calm by Langston Hughes
How still,
How strangely still
The water is today.
It is not good
For water
To be so still that way.
From Selected Poems of Langston Hughes published in 1959.
I thought and thought about these simple lines. I did not know Hughes nor why he might consider still waters to be negative.
I recalled a comforting and oft read Psalm, number 23, read at funerals, and especially the line, "He leads me beside the still waters..."
Was Hughes associating still water with death?
Many of you know much more about his beliefs than I. But half of writing a poem is knowing readers will infuse it with meaning relevant to their lives.
I had fun composing a sing-songy poem as a result of all this thinking.
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Headed for the Light inspired by Langston Hughes
Driving through my neighborhood
in my Subaru
I approached three Humvee jeeps
waiting for the light.
Waiting for the light, dear
waiting for the light,
I approached three Humvee jeeps
waiting for the light.
Staring at my brake pad
in that Subaru
I imagined pumping it
stopping for the light.
Stopping for the light, dear,
stopping for the light,
I imagined pumping it
stopping for the light.
I plowed into those armored cars
with my Subaru
Knowing that I would not stop
heading for the light.
Heading for the light, dear,
heading for the light,
I knew that I would not stop
heading for the light.
I'm in heaven's mansion
bye bye Subaru
I have no more need of cars
Living in the Light
Living in the Light, dear
living in the Light
I have no more need of cars
living in the Light!
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Sometimes I'm inspired by the prior commenters I read. You are one such ... storyteller, you know. I skimmed through your list of blog topics & came across a mutual love ... Langston Hughes. I met him via a book on my grandmother's book shelf some 40 years ago. I read his poems aloud, acted them out for my family. Thank you for reminding me of a true joy from my life. Voted up & following.
Excellent hub!
Tony, I love that you visited and commented here, enhancing the experience of this poem! I had not thought of either interpretation and I love them both. I suppose this is what creates a Master Poet- this ability to discuss his work from so many different angles and meanings. I have been listening to Hughes on tape and he was such a humble man, who intended to open poetry to the common man. What I love about poetry in general is its metaphorical intensity; we are able to become creative even as we read another's work. Thank you again for commenting, as always.
And I am so sorry to hear the news of your Esme's inability to hear music. Perhaps she can listen to her own drum now.
Hugs my friend,
Barbara
Had to come back with another thnought! I'm wondering if there is another allusion there - to people who are not responsive to either joy or sorrow, their own or other people's - "it is not good" for people not to respond to their own of the feelings of others, perhaps?
And then also there is a sense in which it is sometimes not helpful to read too much into a simple poem like this one. Perhaps he was just describing the feeling of foreboding that comes before a storm, foreshadowed by the "strangely still" water?
It is actually a very powerful poem, for all its surface simplicity. Another thought just occured to me - was he likening the stillness of his people to the water - the stillness of people who feel themselves oppressed and will soon turn to anger and hatred - the storm that comes after the stillness?
It is certainly a poem about foreboding, but foreboding what? Very powerful stuff.
Liked your "sing-songy" poem as well. Thanks for sharing it also.
Love and peace
Tony
To throw another idea into the "pool" so to speak! The New English Bible (which I really like) translates Psalm 23 "...and leads me beside the waters of peace." I'm no expert on Hughes (or on poetry) but I think he was referring to the "calm before the storm" idea, especially as the poem is titled "Sea Calm." It's "not good" because it presages a storm with attendant dangers and threats to life. Sailors in the days of sail also did not welcome still waters as they could easily be becalmed and not be able to move when there was no wind.
Lovely Hub which I thoroughly ejoyed. Thank you.
Love and peace
Tony
I love Hughes. I can learn so much from him.
Still water runs deep in the Boundary Water rivers. When I canoed up there, I would head for the still water forming a "v". That was where there were no rocks!
Still water does portray death in a way. Stillness can be seen as death. If you think about it, the only still water there is in nature would be some sort of a pond (although ponds are most of the time artificial). Unmantained ponds usually dry-up but even in doing so they create life in the plants they help to spring-up. So, I guess still water would portray life and death at the same time.
This had my brain doing gymnastics ...
bayoulady, I think Hughes is so amazing because he generates all this discussion... and, well, his poems appear so simple and yet hold deep meaning. Thanks!
daydreamer13, Thank you very much.
Thank you so much for sharing this. Voted up.
Enjoyed this,as well as the feedback.It took me way back to the days when we had many spirited discussions about some of Hughes' poems back in college lit.I agree with one of your commenters..that he meant stagnation is never good.After reading other commenter's thoughts..hummmm...I am rethinking........
Jess, oh my gosh. You honor me in such a huge way.
Micky Dee, I had not thought of this one. Still water as in the calm before the storm; forecasting some bad news or event. Interesting. I like it!
MartieC, I love your specific examples. Thank you so much for your thinking.
Bilharzia and many other bacteria and parasites multiply in too still waters. Deep hub, Barbara. Many fruit for thought.
Great post and I tapped your buttons. I think verses by Langston Hughes can surely be open for interpretation. Mine on the still water is "the calm before the storm". Thank you
You just keep getting better. Hughes is smiling large at this wonderful tribute, I know it.
Yep, in some translations, "still waters" is quiet waters as in "He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul."
I think people are still in death because, well, there is no longer any movement and movement is life. Even in the last hours before death, there is movement of oxygen into and out of the lungs. Once movement stops, there is no hope.
I agree that the ability for a reader to complete a poem is great! I love that in all writing, actually. Reading is writing, as I wrote once in a hub.
Thanks so much for your comments. Our humble opinions may be conjecture, but I love the inspiration.
I think people are 'still and silent' in death. Why are they so still?
Perhaps that is what Langston is writing about? That if anything is strangely still that this is not good.
The great thing about poetry is that the reader always completes the poem so it can mean many things.
As for the Psalm reference, I think still in that reference, means peace. And people use it at funerals in hopes that the person in death will be at peace (lying beside the still waters).
But no matter what it's all conjecture.
Tirzah, interesting references. I did consider still waters run deep and the stillness of swamps!
I have read that Hughes made fun of religion on occasion... he might have been making fun of Psalm 23 and its desire to be led by still waters. In Psalm 23's defense,
Antipas writer Phillip Keller observes, "When sheep are thirsty, they become restless and set out in search of water to satisfy their thirst. If not led to the good water supplies of clean, pure water, they will often end up drinking from the polluted pot holes where they pick up such internal parasites as nematodes, liver flukes or other disease germs. David, when he composed Psalm 23 ... looking at life from the standpoint of a sheep, he wrote, "He [the Good Shepherd] leadeth me beside the still waters." In other words, He alone knows where the still, quiet, deep, clean, pure water is to be found that alone can satisfy His sheep and keep them fit and strong."
I think in your interpretation and indirectly in mine-- as I am considering Psalm 23 and its popularity at funerals-- still waters probably refers to death.
But all this exploration makes me think it might be a good one on me if it was really a tease on religion. Hmmm!
Personally, I've always been fondest of his Alberta K. poems. He uses voice beautifully.
As for still water, still water is stagnant. Water that doesn't flow, doesn't move will eventually go stagnant and all life in it will die.
Also some sailors say the water is can be strangely calm just before the worst of storms.
Or he could just be referring to 'still waters run deep' and that there is much turmoil under the surface.
I dunno.
Tirz
Storytellersrus Hub Author 4 weeks ago
Graceful writer- what a beautiful concept. Yes, I like it a lot; it implies elegance in writing, something we all strive to achieve. I appreciate your comment.
Alice3372, would you edit your comment and take out the divorce link- or explain its relevance? Thanks!