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Today we’re going waaayyy back. All the way back to GB‘s first book, A Street in Bronzeville, published in 1945. She was writing a lot of sonnets at the time. This one is a section from a longer poem called “Gay Chaps at the Bar”. At the time, the word “gay” did not reference any part of the LGBTQ+ community. 

We think this is an “Everybody“ poem. A poem that can connect to any person’s world. 

Read it and let us know what you think. 

What do you think this poem is saying? 

Who do you think is saying it?

Do you know how to write a sonnet? If so, share one with us.

Can you think of a song that has the same feeling as this poem?

Still stuck on a way to react? Try this. 

     What did GB mean when she wrote:

    I am very hungry. I am incomplete.

           And none can tell when I may dine again.

my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell

I hold my honey and I store my bread

In little jars and cabinets of my will.

I label clearly, and each latch and lid

I bid, Be firm till I return from hell.

I am very hungry. I am incomplete.

And none can tell when I may dine again.

No man can give me any word but Wait,

The puny light. I keep eyes pointed in;

Hoping that, when the devil days of my hurt

Drag out to their last dregs and I resume

On such legs as are left me, in such heart

As I can manage, remember to go home,

My taste will not have turned insensitive

To honey and bread old purity could love.

- Gwendolyn Brooks

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