Al Young: "For Poets"

Stay beautiful
but don’t stay down underground too long
Don’t turn into a mole
or a worm
or a root
or a stone

Come on out into the sunlight
Breathe in trees
Knock out mountains
Commune with snakes
& be the very hero of birds

Don’t forget to poke your head up
& blink
think
Walk all around
Swim upstream

Don’t forget to fly


 

"For Poets" by Al Young. Text as published in I Am the Darker Brother: An Anthology of Modern Poems by African Americans (Simon Pulse, 1997 edition).

Listen to the poet read this poem.

Art credit: Photograph of a skydiver, perhaps by #cookieg3.