God

I am God—
Without one friend,
Alone in my purity
World without end.

Below me young lovers
Tread the sweet ground—
But I am God—
I cannot come down.

Spring!
Life is love!
Love is life only!
Better to be human
Than God—and lonely.


Originally appeared in the October 1931 issue of Poetry magazine.


Copyright Credit: “God” is from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, edited by Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel, associate editor, © 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes, used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. and by permission of Harold Ober Associates in the UK.
Source: Poetry (February 2012)