Our Land

We should have a land of sun, 
Of gorgeous sun, 
And a land of fragrant water
Where the twilight is a soft bandanna handkerchief
Of rose and gold, 
And not this land
Where life is cold.

We should have a land of trees,
Of tall thick trees,
Bowed down with chattering parrots
Brilliant as the day,
And not this land where birds are gray.

Ah, we should have a land of joy, 
Of love and joy and wine and song, 
And not this land where joy is wrong.

Credit

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on June 19, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.

About this Poem

“Our Land” appeared in The New Negro: An Interpretation, edited by Alain Locke (Albert and Charles Boni, 1925).