top of page
James Weldon Johnson sign with transparent bgd.png
James Weldon Johnson short sign with transparent bgd.png

Press

JWJCaricature.jpg

Caricature of James Weldon Johnson by Miguel Covarrubias. James Weldon Johnson and Grace Nail Johnson Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

“Tiny bit of humanity,
Blessed with your mother’s face,
And cursed with your father’s mind.
I say cursed with your father’s mind,
Because you can lie so long and so quietly on your back,
Playing with the dimpled big toe of your left foot,
And looking away,
Through the ceiling of the room, and beyond.
Can it be that already you are thinking of being a poet?”

—James Weldon Johnson, Excerpt, “A Poet to His Baby Son” from James Weldon Johnson: Complete Poems, edited by Sondra Kathryn Wilson. 

bottom of page