MLK's Birthday

I’ve put versions of this poem on the blog a few times over the years, but it always seems appropriate to post it again on Dr. King’s birthday. I have added a verse or two over the years.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

©1995, 2009, 2014 Rolland G. Smith

I had a dream the other night

And Martin Luther King was there.

He spoke in tones befit the wise

And asked me if I’d share,

The news of how his dream came out,

Since he had been away.

I told him times had changed somewhat

But the dream was still a dream

And somewhere in these many years

Was progress, or so it seemed.

Tell me, he said, what has happened,

Since he had been away.

We’ve legislated out the hate,

I said, but laws can’t touch the mind,

If bias reeks within the heart

There cannot be a human - kind.

It’s still not true, he said,

For he had been away.

And then he said, where he is now,

There is no ONE color bright,

Not black or white, yellow or brown.

There is only a loving light.

It’s the truth I lived, and live,

He said, as he went away.

Another dream the other night

And Doctor King came back to say

“I felt a joy that overwhelms

And returned without delay.”

“What’s happened” says he, in my dream,

“I felt a powered change of mind”

“Your seeds are flowers now,” I said,

“We’re almost colorblind.”

A black man is our President

How’s that for your birthday?

His knowing smile filled my dream

As he went away.