I realized I wasn't familiar with too much labor poetry, so I started reading some...then I realized for me no labor day poetry fest would be complete without a poem that mentioned slavery.
So here is the rather epic Freedom's Plow by Langston Hughes, which is too long to post in its entirety here.
An excellent excerpt, however, is:
Free hands and slave hands, Indentured hands, adventurous hands, White hands and black hands Held the plow handles, Ax handles, hammer handles, Launched the boats and whipped the horses That fed and housed and moved America. Thus together through labor, All these hands made America.
As for the song mentioned in the poem ("Keep Your Hand on the Plow, Hold On!", here is a version sung by Mahalia Jackson accompanied by Duke Ellington's orchestra)
Challenge 22
So here is the rather epic Freedom's Plow by Langston Hughes, which is too long to post in its entirety here.
An excellent excerpt, however, is:
Free hands and slave hands,
Indentured hands, adventurous hands,
White hands and black hands
Held the plow handles,
Ax handles, hammer handles,
Launched the boats and whipped the horses
That fed and housed and moved America.
Thus together through labor,
All these hands made America.
As for the song mentioned in the poem ("Keep Your Hand on the Plow, Hold On!", here is a version sung by Mahalia Jackson accompanied by Duke Ellington's orchestra)