Finis
Now that our love has drifted
To a quiet close,
Leaving the empty ache
That always follows when beauty goes;
Now that you and I,
Who stood tip-toe on earth
To touch our fingers to the sky,
Have turned away
To allow our little love to die—
Go, dear, seek again the magic touch.
But if you are wise,
As I shall be wise,
You will not again
Love over much.
From The Book of American Negro Poetry (Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1922), edited by James Weldon Johnson. This poem is in the public domain.
Waring Cuney
William Waring Cuney was born in Washington, D.C., and educated at Howard University, Lincoln University (where he was a classmate of Langston Hughes), and the New England Conservatory of Music. Cuney later studied music in Rome and at Columbia University before focusing on writing.