I was in AP English my senior year in high school (back when I was overachieving). One of our year long assignments was a poetry project, where we had to pick and study a poet from a number different eras.

We had to study four of them off of a list my teacher compiled, and I picked Shakespeare, Keats, and Li-Young Lee. But when it was time to pick a fourth poet, I picked Langston Hughes.

He was part of the Harlem Renaissance in my beloved New York City, and was an incredible poet and an incredible man. As a poet, he really captured so much in so few lines, and in honor of his 113th birthday today (February 1, 1902), I want to share one of the poems by him that I studied in high school, and which has become one of my favorite poems of all time.

“Juke Box Love Song”

I could take the Harlem night
and wrap around you,
Take the neon lights and make a crown,
Take the Lenox Avenue busses,
Taxis, subways,
And for your love song tone their rumble down.
Take Harlem’s heartbeat,
Make a drumbeat,
Put it on a record, let it whirl,
And while we listen to it play,
Dance with you till day–
Dance with you, my sweet brown Harlem girl.

Tagged: poems: juke box love song, poets: langston hughes