Arna Bontemps

Roses for poet, novelist, historian, anthologist, archivist, and librarian-

Arna Wendell Bontemps who left us on this date in 1973.

The Day-Breakers

We are not come to wage a strife
    With swords upon this hill.
It is not wise to waste the life
    Against a stubborn will.
Yet would we die as some have done:
Beating a way for the rising sun.

1927