Saturday Poetry – ‘Come Let Us Be Friends’ Sarah Lee Brown
Saturday Poetry – ‘Come Let Us Be Friends’ Sarah Lee Brown
This week’s Saturday Poetry brings you the soul-stirring poem titled ”Come Let Us Be Friends’ Sarah Lee Brown. “Come Let Us Be Friends” appears in Sarah Lee Brown Fleming’s poetry collection Clouds and Sunshine (The Cornhill Company, 1920). In Afro-American Women Writers, 1746–1933: An Anthology and Critical Guide (G.K. Hall, 1988), American journalist, editor, and associate librarian Ann Allen Shockley remarks that Fleming “has been unnoticed as an early novelist and poet of the twentieth century. Her books were not mentioned in Jet’s brief historical capsule about her. She is remembered more for her social and civic contributions than for her writing. […] [A]nd despite the energy she poured into community work, she managed to write songs, plays, musicals, skits, short stories, and essays. She felt that her writing would be better, however, if she were able to improve her mind. Thus, she tried to strengthen her educational background by taking correspondence courses, particularly in creative writing.” In the anthology Shadowed Dreams: Women’s Poetry of the Harlem Renaissance (Rutgers University Press, 2006), author and editor Maureen Honey notes that “although [Fleming’s] poetry never made it into journals of the Harlem Renaissance, she exemplifies many of the movement’s tenets in her determination to combine political, intellectual, and creative work as a way to move the race forward.”
For this edition of Saturday Poetry, we have paired Sarah Lee Brown’s emotive words with mobile art by the talented @pilar_simpson_with the captivating artwork complementing the poem’s essence beautifully, creating a symphony of emotions.
To view the others we have published in this section, go here.
‘Come Let Us Be Friends’ Sarah Lee Brown
Come, let us be friends, you and I,
E’en though the world doth hate at this hour;
Let’s bask in the sunlight of a love so high
That war cannot dim it with all its armed power.
Come, let us be friends, you and I,
The world hath her surplus of hatred today;
She needeth more love, see, she droops with a sigh,
Where her axis doth slant in the sky far away.
Come, let us be friends, you and I,
And love each other so deep and so well,
That the world may grow steady and forward fly,
Lest she wander towards chaos and drop into hell.
Please support us
TheAppWhisperer has always had a dual mission: to promote the most talented mobile artists of the day and to support ambitious, inquisitive viewers the world over. As the years pass TheAppWhisperer has gained readers and viewers and found new venues for that exchange.
All this work thrives with the support of our community.
Please consider donating to TheAppWhisperer. Your support helps protect our independence and ensures we can continue delivering open, global promotion of mobile artists. Every contribution, however big or small, is valuable for our future.
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter is a British photography journalist, editor, curator, and the founder of *TheAppWhisperer.com*, one of the world’s leading platforms dedicated to mobile photography and art. Since its launch in 2009, TheAppWhisperer has become an international hub for artists of all levels to discover, learn, exhibit, and engage with contemporary photographic practice.Built on principles of inclusivity, accessibility, and artistic excellence, Joanne has spent almost two decades championing mobile photography as a serious artistic medium. Through interviews, critical essays, exhibitions, competitions, and education, she has helped shape and document the evolution of mobile art on a global scale.Her work has taken her internationally, lecturing on photography and mobile art at institutions and events including the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea, alongside appearances in the UK and Europe. She has served as a juror for international photography and mobile art awards across Portugal, Canada, the United States, South Korea, Italy, and the UK.Joanne is also the founder of *TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com*, one of the first online galleries dedicated exclusively to collectible mobile art, connecting artists with collectors across Europe, the United States, and Asia.Before founding TheAppWhisperer, Joanne worked extensively in print journalism and photographic publishing, including roles at a paparazzi photo agency and as deputy editor of a leading photography magazine. Her freelance journalism, criticism, and commentary have been published widely in both the UK and the US, with bylines in *The Times*, *The Sunday Times*, *The Guardian*, *Popular Photography*, *NikonPro*, *DPReview*, *Which?*, *Vogue Italia*, *LensCulture*, the *BBC*, and more recently, the *Financial Times*, where her published letters on photography continue to contribute to wider conversations around the medium.Alongside her editorial and curatorial work, Joanne’s own photographic practice has been exhibited internationally across the UK, Europe, South Korea, and the United States. Her work increasingly explores themes of grief, loss, death, memory, and the body.Her current research interests centre on grief, death, and poverty, with forthcoming postgraduate study leading towards doctoral research in these areas.Joanne is currently developing new long-form writing and photographic projects and is available for commissions, editorial projects, speaking engagements, and collaborations.Contact: joannetheappwhisperer@gmail.com)
