i've known rivers:

i've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.



my soul has grown deep like the rivers.



i bathed in the euphrates when dawns were young.

i built my hut near the congo and it lulled me to sleep.

i looked upon the nile and raised the pyramids above it.

i heard the singing of the mississippi when abe lincoln went down to new orleans, and i've seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.



i've known rivers:

ancient, dusky rivers.



my soul has grown deep like the rivers.

-langston hughes, the negro speaks of rivers-