For Day 2 of National Poetry Month, I give you a taste of Langston Hughes:
Motto
I play it cool
I dig all jive
That's the reason
I stay alive
My motto
As I live and learn
Is dig and be dug in return
There’s a wealth of Hughes I could choose from; but
I was introduced to this one in an episode of Law & Order, where the detectives are on a stakeout in an empty
apartment. Det. Lennie
Briscoe, a true renaissance man when it comes to le bon mot, is playing cards with Lt. Anita Van Buren. He recites
the first four lines, with Van Buren completing the poem, with raised eyebrows.
Briscoe explains: quoting Hughes used to work well as
a chat-up line “on the Jewish girls from Riverdale.” Van Buren answers that it
still works pretty well on girls from Jackson Heights.
On girls from Pasadena, too.
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