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.

*****

Langston Hughes, key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, published his short poem ‘God’ in the October 1931 issue of Poetry. Despite the illustration I have chosen for his poem, Hughes was neither straight nor white… but I’m sure he would forgive my choice, as he was a very tolerant individual.

Le Printemps (Spring), oil painting by Pierre Auguste Cot, 1873. Metropolitan Museum of Art, online collection (The Met object ID 438158), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20137984