I’ve known rivers:
I’ve know 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 pyra-
mids 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