The Wise
By: Countee Cullen

Dead men are wisest, for they know
How far the roots of flowers go,
How long a seed must rot to grow.

Dead men alone bear frost and rain
On throbless heart and heatless brain,
And feel no stir of joy or pain.

Dead men alone are satiate;
They sleep and dream and have no weight,
To curb their rest, of love or hate.

Strange, men should flee their company,
Or think me strange who long to be
Wrapped in their cool immunity.

The Dumb Inspired by the Wise
By: Elliott Campbell
 

Dumb men are dumb because ,
they do not know what it is to work hard.
Dumb men think that everything will be given to them.
The dumb thinks that to get what you want in life,
With out working.
Dumb men are the people who don’t put in the extra effort,
If any effort at all.
Dumb people are the people you and me don’t want to be like.

Incident
By: Countee Cullen
Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.

Sign Of Change inspired by incident
By: Elliott Campbell
Once driving through Alabama,
Excited, and felling good because I had just came from a Jazz concert
I see a white man.
I notice him looking at me but I do not look back.
I know they do not like blacks in this area.
He starts to walk toward me.
He gets closer and closer until we are face to face.
He asks me my name.
I say nothing.
He says he just came over to tell me that my tire was flat
And that I might want change it,
I was surprised that he came and talked to me.
I was even more surprised that he let me know that my tire was flat.
I guess that goes to that there is a sign of change.