The Negro Mother

I am the Negro Mother. The mother of humanity, The womb that gave birth to humanity: With too much pain and sorrow.

I could not speak for a long time. I could not speak until the bread, The blood, the sweat of my people, Poured like rain over the barren land.

Only then did I find my voice, And the fertile ground ache with songs, Of who I was, who I am, Surely like the sun that rises, Is the warmth of my love, yet unbroken.

• Langston Hughes