Gather quickly Out of darkness All the songs you know And throw them at the sun Before they melt

When a man starts out with nothing… When a man starts out with his han… Empty, but clean, When a man starts to build a world… He starts first with himself

I worked for a woman, She wasn’t mean— But she had a twelve—room House to clean. Had to get breakfast,

Let’s go see Old Abe Sitting in the marble and the moon… Sitting lonely in the marble and t… Quiet for ten thousand centuries,… Quiet for a million, million years…

To fling my arms wide In some place of the sun, To whirl and to dance Till the white day is done. Then rest at cool evening

In the Quarter of the Negroes Where the doors are doors of paper Dust of dingy atoms Blows a scratchy sound. Amorphous jack—o’—Lanterns caper

I was so sick last night I Didn’t hardly know my mind. So sick last night I Didn’t know my mind. I drunk some bad licker that

Where is the Jim Crow section On this merry—go—round, Mister, cause I want to ride? Down South where I come from White and colored

I could take the Harlem night and wrap around you, Take the neon lights and make a cr… Take the Lenox Avenue busses, Taxis, subways,

The gold moth did not love him So, gorgeous, she flew away. But the gray moth circled the flam… Until the break of day. And then, with wings like a dead d…

2 and 2 are 4. 4 and 4 are 8. But what would happen If the last 4 was late? And how would it be

We passed their graves: The dead men there, Winners or losers, Did not care. In the dark