by Henry Lee Dumas (1934 - 1968)
Coat of Many Fibers
Language: English
Out of the red earth and the black earth grew the white cotton and then came black and brown fingers picking it. In the kerosene-lighted shadows of the evening shack the fingers wove a long cloak of cotton. With a line of blood, a thread of weeping and moaning, a strain of song, a streak of tears, and a grasp on the white fiber, the fingers spun a hymn to God.
Confirmed with Black World/Negro Digest, juni 1965, p.53
Text Authorship:
- by Henry Lee Dumas (1934 - 1968), "Coat of Many Fibers", copyright status unknown [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Joyce Solomon Moorman (b. 1946), "Coat of Many Fibers", copyright © 1980 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2025-10-10
Line count: 15
Word count: 71