I Want to Die While You Love Me by Georgia Douglas Johnson

Georgia Douglas Johnson
September 10, 1880 -- May 14, 1966

I want to die while you love me,
While yet you hold me fair,
While Laughter lies upon my lips
And lights are in my hair.
I want to die while you love me
And bear to that still bed
Your kisses turbulent, unspent
To warm me when I’m dead.

I want to die while you love me;
Oh, who would care to live
Till love has nothing more to ask
And nothing more to give?

I want to die while you love me,
And never, never see
The glory of this perfect day
Grow dim, or cease to be!

Mrs. Johnson was one of the many little known poets, meaning her name was not as well known as Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer and the like. She was well known with her peers. Although she wrote many poems, plays and newspaper articles I believe she wasn't give the acclaim to the likes of the fore mentioned writers.

Georgia Douglas Johnson, harlem renaissance, poet, writer

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quill

never perfected

we pluck and preen
each plume
of ourselves
before prying eyes

the peepers of page
voyeurs of feathered roots
suffixes, and prefixes

this makes sense --

even Will understood
that life's but a walking shadow
a poor player upon a stage

he knew that frets and loves
would dot the barbs floating
from our eyes

hollows spurt
word after word
of coffee induced verses
and 3AM sleeplessness
striving for perfection

and so

we scribble
until sounds and utterances
dry in our quills

with hopes that one day
we'll earn the right
to be called

a scribe

a versifier

a poet