Poems from Cane (1923)

• And there, a field rat, startled, squealing bleeds,
  His belly close to ground. I see the blade,
  Blood-stained, continue cutting weeds and shade
  • from "Reapers"

• O singers, resinous and soft your songs
  Above the sacred whisper of the pines,
  Give virgin lips to cornfield concubines,
  Bring dreams of Christ to dusky cane-lipped throngs.
  • from "Georgia Dusk"

• Superstition saw
  Something it had never seen before:
  Brown eyes that loved without a trace of fear,
  Beauty so sudden for that time of year.
  • from "November Cotton Flower"

• One seed becomes
  An everlasting song, a singing tree,
  Caroling softly souls of slavery,
  What they were, and what they are to me,
  Caroling softly souls of slavery.
  • from "Song of the Son"