Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

Paul Laurence Dunbar was the first African-American poet to receive national acclaim. He had great versatility, producing poems in dialect and standard English. Here is a poem called "We Wear the Mask". I have quoted this poem in sermons over the years, because sometimes people go through life with their church faces on. "Hi Bob! How ya doing?" I'll ask. "Fine" comes the response, even though things are not fine. For some reason, there is a lie that people believe that we must always be "fine". Many live their spirituality as if they had to be perfect, had to have answers, had to be ...whatever. Try something today, leave your mask at home. Here is the poem:

We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,--
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!