Beware The Easy Griefs / That Fool

Each Body Has Its Art.

I Don't Want People Running Around Saying Gwen Brooks's Work Is Intellectual. That Makes People Think Instantly About Obscurity. It Shouldn't Have To Mean That, But It Often Seems To.

What Shall I Give My Children? Who Are Poor, / Who Are Adjudged The Leastwise Of The Land...

People Like Definite Decisions, / Tidy Answers, All The Little Ravelings / Snipped Off, The Lint Removed, They / Hop Happily Among Their Roughs / Calling What They Can't Clutch Insanity / Or Saintliness.

Good Health Is A Duty To Yourself, To Your Contemporaries, To Your Inheritors, To The Progress Of The World.