The children’s poetry community lost a friend and a mentor when Lee Bennett Hopkins died on August 8th. I never had the pleasure of meeting him, but in everything I’ve read about him, he was a gentle leader and proud father of poetry.
Among his many anthologies, I have Amazing Places on my classroom shelf. In it, Lee Bennett Hopkins collected poems about places around our country. His contribution was a poem titled Langston.
Though his professional writing was successful, it was the death of poet Langston Hughes in 1967 that proved to be a spark for Hopkins’s career of anthologizing poetry for children.
By Shannon Maughan |
Aug 13, 2019
While borrowing a few lines as well as the form of this poem and reading his obituary on Publishers Weekly, I wrote this poem for Lee.
Margaret Simon, 2019
His Dusts of Dreams
after Lee Bennett Hopkins “Langston”
for Lee Bennett Hopkins, 1938-2019
Who would have known
a young boy
of divorce,
a poor student
inspired by a teacher
would find his footing
in education–
from student
to teacher
to collector of poems,
With greetings to all
Dear Ones,
he left
his dusts of dreams.
Reflections on the Teche 
Lovely. Your poem perfectly embraces the spirit of Lee’s poem and commemorates him in such a beautiful way. I’m so glad I get to write poems with you. It’s a special kinship.
I love the line “his dusts of dreams” and so enjoyed seeing how you used that line and LBH’s poem to inspire your tribute to him. Well done!
I really like the way you’ve carried on Lee’s inspiration to the next generation in your poem. Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
Nice, I cannot see the portion you wrote only the part before the poem Sorry Must be me Jim
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I’m not sure why you can’t see the poem. Sorry.
What an exquisite line to choose. Your poem is a lovely, honest tribute, and too, it is a comfort, Margaret. Thank you. I’m clutching those bits of dust mightily. Happy Poetry Friday. xx
Lee’s own inspiration to carry on those ‘dusts of dreams” inspires us all, and now you are carrying it, too, Margaret. I love the way you showed the past and into now.
Love that you borrowed Lee’s beautiful line to write about Lee! Gorgeous, Margaret.
This is wonderful, Margaret. I sure hope wherever Lee is, he is seeing and feeling these beautiful tributes. I know they would make him so proud.
Dust was never so precious as the “dust of dreams.” His memory lives on in everyone’s poems!
Margaret, when I read Lee’s poem the lines, “crystal stair memories” and “his dusts of dreams” stood out. I can see why you gravitate to the latter. Your poem is a lovely evolution from Lee’s. His dusts of dreams will remain in poetry lovers’ hearts.
Margaret thank you for this poem. Reading both of them together feels like being connect to the grand cycle of life.
Margaret, this is beautiful. I love how Lee’s tribute to Langston turns to a tribute to Lee in your hands.
Thinking of Lee’s “dust of dreams” makes me realize we all are capable of leaving behind our own dust of dreams…and there’s no time like the present to begin. Wonderful tribute, Margaret!
Oh, that is lovely, Margaret–making that connection to Langston circular. Feels truly like fairy dust!
This really gets to the core of Lee. He was a teacher and saw the power of literacy, poetry, hope and others. Now he sprinkles star dust. Love your poem, Margaret.
This poem hit me in the heart. You capture Lee’s story, Margaret.