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The next read-around is Thursday,
April 6, 2023 at 5:00 PM PST

My Thoughts

Langston Hughes classic poem, Harlem (later retitled, A Dream Deferred), points to the dark side of the American Dream. The dream of rags to riches, to be the maker of your own life, is the quintessential portrait of possibility that America claims to represent as the “land of opportunity” where all are “equal.”  It is a nice cover story. But it also hides the historical reality of massive oppression and abuse of groups upon which America built its capital. Long before Martin Luther King, Jr. made his classic “I have a dream” speech, he quoted Langston Hughes poem, Harlem, in talks and sermons around the country. It may well have been the inspiration for his imagery of a promissory note embedded in the American dream that has been denied, or at best, “deferred” for people of color. What happens to a dream deferred? As Langston points out, it dries up, spoils, smells, and, potentially, explodes.

  1. Read the poem 

  2. Do your own reflection on it, noting what it inspires in you

  3. Feel free to use your own reflection as your prompt or…

  4. Use the selection of prompts in the column on the right

  5. Pick one that inspires you and write (feel free to use only one or write several poems using different prompts) or…

  6. Don’t use any of the provided prompts and follow your inspiration from wherever it comes

Harlem

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
and then run?
Does it stink
like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

—Langston Hughes
https://poets.org/poet/langston-hughes
Note: The poem was later retitled, A Dream Deferred

Prompt Ideas

  1. Journal or write a poem about a dream that you have put off or deferred. What causes it to be deferred? What condition or permission would allow you to pursue it.

  2. Compose your own version of what happens when a dream is deferred

  3. What feeds your dreams and keeps them alive (even if they are on a receding horizon)?  

  4. Use Langston’s analogies as your prompt:

    1. A raisin in the sun: What could that raisin represent? What is it like to be a raisin in the sun? Or just write about raisins.

    2. A festering sore: What has festered in you or in your life? Or what have you observed festering in others? What have you observed festering in society?

    3. The stench of something rotten. Or write a poem using the sense of smell.

    4. A heavy load sagging: What is a load that you or someone or society carries? How does the heft and feel of the load shift over time?

  5. As usual, write about anything else in the poem or in life that inspires you.