I've known rivers:

I've known rivers ancient as the world & older than the

flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when the dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo & it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile & raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln

went down to New Orleans, & I've seen its muddy

bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

--Langston Hughes