Amos (Postscript, 1968)
From Montgomery to Memphis he marches
He stands on the threshold of tomorrow
He breaks the bars of iron and they remove the signs
He opens the gates of our prisons.
He speaks to the captive hearts of America
He bares raw their conscience
He is a man of peace for the people
Amos is a Prophet of the Lord
Amos speaks through Eternity
The glorious Word of the Lord!
From This Is My Century: New and Collected Poems (University of Georgia Press, 1989). Used with the permission of the University of Georgia Press.
Margaret Walker
Margaret Walker was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1915. The first African American poet to receive the Yale Younger Poets Prize, she was the author of For My People (Yale University Press, 1942) and This Is My Century: New and Collected Poems (University of Georgia Press, 1989), among others.