Langston Hughes
As I Grew Older / Dreamer
[Spoken]
I take my dreams
And make of them a bronze vase
And a wide round fountain
With a beautiful statue in its center
And I ask you:
Do you understand my dreams?
Sometimes you say you do
And sometimes you say you don't
Either way
It doesn't matter
I continue to dream

It was a long time ago
I have almost forgotten my dream
But it was there then
In front of me
Bright like a sun,—
My dream

And then the wall rose
Rose slowly
Slowly
Between me and my dream
Rose slowly, slowly
Dimming
Hiding
The light of my dream
Rosе until it touched the sky,—
The wall
Shadow
I am black

I liе down in the shadow
No longer the light of my dream before me
Above me
Only the thick wall
Only the shadow

My hands!
My dark hands!
Break through the wall!
Find my dream!
Help me to shatter this darkness
To smash this night
To break this shadow
Into a thousand lights of sun
Into a thousand whirling dreams
Of sun!