Langston Hughes's "Daybreak in Alabama"

Weather makes the news more often than poetry. In recent storms across southern states, Alabama has been the hardest hit, 2/3 of casualties, extensive but random damage (typical of tornadoes) in Tuscaloosa, Birmingham

For Alabama and before NPM is gone, poet, translator, musician, essayist, novel and short story writer Langston Hughes's "Daybreak in Alabama." View on the Knopf Poetry site. 

Pastel drawing of Hughes by Winold Reiss, on Modern American Poetry

Looking for more Alabama/ poetry connections: Alabama State Poetry Society; football poems (which I confess to not exploring); Alabama Song (1927) lyrics by Bertoldt Brecht, also known as "Moon over Alabama" or "Whiskey Bar," music by Kurt Weil, recorded by Lotte Lenya, The Doors and David Bowie ~ all on YouTube.

More on poem and author: Go to the Poem-a-Day website to comment on this poem, share it on Facebook, and peruse other poems. Learn more about The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes Buy the Book Excerpt from COLLECTED POEMS. Copyright © 1994 by The Estate of Langston Hughes. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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