Pauli Murray wrote many articles and books on race and gender relations in addition to Dark Testament and Other Poems and an autobiography . I seek no conquest, no wealth, no power, no revenge I seek only discovery Of the illimitable heights and depths of my own being. I have been slain, but live on in the rivers of history. I have been cast aside, but I sparkle in the darkness. I have been enslaved, yet my spirit is unbound. I am the child of kings and serfs, freemen and slaves, Having neither superiors nor inferiors, Progeny of all colors, all cultures, all systems, all beliefs.
Prophecy I sing of a new American Separate from all others, Yet enlarged and diminished by all others. I’ll hear the symphonies within a stone, Catch every murmur of the ground, Travel the heavens with each vagrant cloud And ark the golden islands in the sky. The spears of sun will prick No blade of grass to wakefulness But I shall feel it tremble, No further straw be laid upon a nest, No twig but I shall see it quiver. Returning Spring I’ll sink my roots far down And drink from hidden rivers, Renew my kinship with growing things- The little ants will hold their congresses Upon my arm, and cautious insects Will make brief tours across my brows And spiders spin webs from toe to toe. Give me a song of hope and love And a brown girl’s heart to hear it. Give me a song of kindliness And a country where I can live it.
Give me a song of faith And a people to believe in it. Give me a song of hope And a world where I can sing it. Hope is a word in a tuneless ditty- A word whispered with the wind, A dream of forty acres and a mule, A cabin of one’s own and a moment to rest, A name and place for one’s children And children’s children at last.
Hope is a crushed stalk Between clenched fingers. Pauli Murray published one collection of poetry, Dark Testament and Other Poems. Reflecting on her work, Murray said, “when I wrote poetry…I wanted to use language in its most distilled sense….In other words, to use the language of the oppressor in its most effective side.” 1 The following are three selections from Dark Testament and Other Poems: 2 Dark Testament, Verse 8
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