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August 15, 2021

Serenity

Charles Bertram Johnson

The storms that break and sweep about my feet,
The winds that blow and tear, the rains that fall,
Shall not the courage of my soul appall;
I shall be conqueror, tho’ sore defeat
O’erwhelm the outbound keels of all my fleet
Of dreams; tho’ not one tattered sail, but all
Go down mid sea; with heart serene, I’ll greet
The worst or best, the stronger for the squall.

My soul is set amid the storms of life,—
The hurricanes of passion crash and break
And tides of heathen hate sweep o’er our land;
But calm amid the flying ruins of strife,
Or in the leaping flames around the stake
With pierced hands—my faith serene,—I stand!

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on August 15, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.

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“Serenity” appeared in Songs of My People (The Cornhill Company, 1918).

Charles Bertram Johnson was born in Callao, Missouri, in 1880. He is the author of the poetry collection Songs of My People (The Cornhill Company, 1918) and the pamphlets Wind Whisperings (1900) and The Mantle of Dunbar (1918). Johnson worked as a teacher and later became part of the ministry.

Songs of My People
(The Cornhill Company, 1918)

“This is My Life” by William Stanley Braithwaite
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“Benediction” by Georgia Douglas Johnson
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Thanks to Kazim Ali, author of Northern Light: Power, Land, and the Memory of Water (Milkweed Editions, 2021), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Watch a Q&A about Ali’s curatorial approach and find out more about our guest editors for the year.

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Poem-a-Day - "Serenity" by Charles Bertram Johnson

Serenity

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