Where the Sidewalk Ends
by Shel Silverstein

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

Excerpt from In This Place (An American Lyric)
by Amanda Gorman

There's a poem in this place—
a poem in America
a poet in every American
who rewrites this nation, who tells
a story worthy of being told on this minnow of an earth
to breathe hope into a palimpsest of time—
a poet in every American
who sees that our poem penned
doesn't mean our poem's end.

There's a place where this poem dwells—
it is here, it is now, in the yellow song of dawn's bell
where we write an American lyric
we are just beginning to tell.

The Beautiful Night
by Goethe

Now I leave this hut,
Where my beloved dwells,
Walk with muffled steps
Through the desolate dark wood:
The moon breaks through bush and oak-trees,
The West Wind announces her presence,
And the bowing birch-trees strew
Sweetest incense in her path.
How exquisite is the coolness
Of this beautiful summer night!
O how I feel in this silence
What fills the heart with happiness!
Its rapture can scarcely be grasped;
And yet, O heaven, I would forego
A thousand such nights,
If my beloved would grant me one.

BLK History Month
by Nikki Giovanni

If Black History Month is not
viable then wind does not
carry the seeds and drop them
on fertile ground
rain does not
dampen the land
and encourage the seeds
to root
sun does not
warm the earth
and kiss the seedlings
and tell them plain:
You're As Good As Anybody Else
You've Got A Place Here, Too