The Poetry Center of Chicago visited St. James Episcopal Cathedral yesterday to write poems inspired by Langston Hughes famous poem, “Harlem.” Because we’re young and still have time to achieve our dreams, we reinvented Hughes’ famous line “What happens to a dream deferred?” into the celebratory “What happens to a dream achieved?”
Here are some of the things Chicago youth from all over the city are dreaming about this summer:
Madison
I see
hula
dancers
grass
skirts
hippos
surfers
surfing
water at the end of the world
people going into hula houses
and watching hula movies
me and my sister walking
to Hawaii
I am living in Hawaii.
Jonathan
I have a really big house
and am a famous horseback rider
an achieved dream tastes sticky like a horse
sounds like steps, clop, clop, clop, clop,
looks like something I won, like a trophy
or a carrot for my horse,
it smells like gold.
Elijah
My Dream is
I’m gonna walk out that door,
and go feed the poor
I’m going to sing
all I can bring
I’m be a success
and not a mess.
Kahlen
What happens to a dream achieved?
It sounds like action,
tastes like pop-corn,
feels like dreams coming true,
smells like cheesecake,
looks like Chicago,
I wish one day
to be in a movie.
