we real cool

i'm putting this one in because my friend once sent me a link to an audiorecording of Gwendolyn Brooks reading this poem, and it is amazing. she read it in a way that was completely surprising to me and honestly? knocked my socks off.





the poem:

WE REAL COOL

The Pool Players
Seven at the Golden Shovel

We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.

i read a piece where she wrote that reading it you should say the "we" softly, because it is meant to speak to the uncertainly of the boys in the pool hall.

and because she said she wished people remembered she wrote other poems:

SPEECH TO THE YOUNG :
SPEECH TO THE PROGRESS-TOWARD

Say to them,
say to the down-keepers,
the sun-slappers,
the self-soilers,
the harmony-hushers,
"even if you are not ready for day
it cannot always be night."
You will be right.
For that is the hard home-run.

Live not for battles won.
Live not for the-end-of-the-song.
Live in the along.

i love this one, especially as a somewhat progressive (for my denomination at least) pastor, because i want to say it: "even if you are not ready for day, it cannot always be night."