Poetry Saves, 1

I was introduced to the works of Langston Hughes my sophomore year of high school. Instantly, I felt a connection.

Hughes wrote with such force and passion, stabbing the heart and knocking the head. He wrote about the struggle to survive and feel counted in a world where being different meant you were of little worth. I fell in love with Langston's rhythm, his word usage, the rhymes, and themes. He inspired truth and reason. Here, I celebrate him.

In "Mother to Son", a mother sets out to encourage her son to keep on fighting, even when it feels too hard to.

This is the first in a series of many poems to be posted to offer motivation and provoke thought. These are my survival poems and I hope that they will shake you like they do me.

So, enjoy this first one and tell me what you think.

Mother to Son
by Langston Hughes

Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor --
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now --
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.