Gwendolyn Brooks was 7 when she started writing poems. At 13, she her first piece in a magazine. The poem was called “Eventide.” It read:
”When the sun sinks behind the mountains,
And the sky is besprinkled with color,
And the neighboring brook is peaceful still,
With a gentle, silent ripple now and then;
When flowers send forth sweet odors,
And the grass is uncommonly green,
When the air is
sweet,
And children flock to their mothers’ sides,
Then worry flees and comfort
,
For all know it welcoming evening.”
Brooks wrote many more poems. She made more than 20 books!
Brooks was born in Kansas in 1917. She moved to Chicago, Illinois, as a baby. In 1968, Brooks became the of Illinois. She held that title for 32 years. In the 1980s, she was a poetry expert for the Library of Congress. That job is now the U.S. poet laureate.
Brooks won many awards. One was a Pulitzer Prize in 1950. Brooks was the first African American to get that top honor.
Brooks died in 2000. But she left us her words. Her writings show how Brooks saw the world. She often wrote about everyday life.
The Bean Eaters is Brooks’s most famous book. In a poem, the writer describes a couple sharing a meal. They don’t have much money. But beans are cheap. The poem describes the scene:
“They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair.
Dinner is a casual affair.
Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood,
Tin flatware.”
Brooks wrote about race and Black experiences. In “Primer for Blacks,” she says:
“Blackness
stretches over the land.
Blackness —
the Black of it,
the rust-red of it,
the milk and cream of it,
the tan and yellow-tan of it,
the deep-brown middle-brown high-brown of it,
the ‘olive’ and ochre of it —
Blackness
marches on.”
Brooks also shared advice. The poem is called “Speech to the Young.” It reminds people to live in the moment:
“Live not for battles won.
Live not for the-end-of-the-song.
Live in the along.”
Updated January 31, 2023, 5:01 P.M. (ET)
By Ashley Morgan
