Harlem by Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?

      Does it dry up

      like a raisin in the sun?

      Or fester like a sore—

      And then run?

      Does it stink like rotten meat?

      Or crust and sugar over—

      like a syrupy sweet?

      Maybe it just sags

      like a heavy load.

      Or does it explode

(C) Langston Hughes

• Write of a time when you deferred a dream. Perhaps to enter a poetry competition, take a training, start your own business, or visit a friend you haven’t seen in years. Whatever the dream, how did deferring it affect you? Explore your thoughts in your journal.

• How does the last line of the poem speak to you? What would it be like to have a dream you hold now EXPLODE? Begin a poem or prose piece with the words, “My dream explodes... “ See where it takes you.

• Write you own list of ten metaphors to describe a dream deferred. Reflect on your list, and then choose the metaphor that speaks to you loudest, in this moment. Write about the metaphor in your journal.