A Prayer

AS I lie in bed,

Flat on my back;

There passes across my ceiling

An endless panaroma of things--

Quick steps of gay-voiced children,

Adolescence in its wondering silences,

Maid and man on moonlit summer's eve,

Women in the holy glow of Motherhood,

Old men gazing silently through the twilight

Into the beyond.

O God, give me words to make my dream-children live.

Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr.

And What Shall You Say?

BROTHER, come!

And let us go unto our God.

And when we stand before Him

I shall say--

"Lord, I do not hate,

I am hated.

I scourge no one,

I am scourged.

I covet no lands,

My lands are coveted.

I mock no peoples,

My people are mocked."

And, brother, what will you say?

Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr.

Is It Because I Am Black?

WHY do men smile when I speak,

And call my speech

The whimperings of a babe

That cries but knows not what it wants?

Is it because I am black?

Why do men sneer when I arise

And stand in their councils,

And look them eye to eye,

And speak their tongue?

Is it because I am black?

Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr.

Rain Music

ON the dusty earth-drum

  Beats the falling rain;

Now a whispered murmur,

  Now a louder strain.

Slender, silvery drumsticks,

  On an ancient drum,

Beat the mellow music

  Bidding life to come.

Chords of earth awakened,

  Notes of greening spring,

Rise and fall triumphant

  Over every thing.

Slender, silvery drumsticks

  Beat the long tattoo--

God, the Great Musician,

  Calling life anew.

Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr.

Supplication

I AM so tired and weary,

  So tired of the endless fight,

So weary of waiting the dawn

  And finding endless night.

That I ask but rest and quiet--

  Rest for days that are gone,

And quiet for the little space

  That I must journey on.

Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr.