Babylon Revisted by Amiri Baraka

I read this poem four times and I am still at odds of what it exactly means. Baraka has a raw, edgy style that pushes a sense of social issues as a main point. I think that the poem referenced one of two things: 1. Warfare or 2. Crack Cocaine.

"The gaunt thing with no organs creeps along the streets"If something has no organs then it is dead,creeps along the streets means un-detected; death "creeps" up on you, it is around every corner.

"she will be the great witch of euro-american legend who sucked the life from some unknown nigger whose name will be known but whose substance will not ever even by him who is dead in a pile of dopeskin"I think "Witch" in this context means a mechanism of death, the person will not have ever known their "substance" or addiction. "Dopeskin" can give the impression of referencing to drugs. "..full of American holes and a monkey on his back" "American holes" to me means the tracks that are left on a person after continual drug use and the "monkey" on his back is the guilt from the addiction.
On the other hand I believe there are some references to war considering Baraka's previous war experiences.

Mother to Son By Langston Hughes

I think this poem is very clear on what it's meaning is. I think that Hughes used a stair case as a metaphor for the struggles or road blocks in life that one has to face. "Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair." Here he is saying life has not been an easy, clear road.

"It’s had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare." The tacks, splinters, and boards represent the challenges that have come about during the mother's journey in life. There is no carpet on the floor because life has not been laid out for like a carpet for the mother, she had to find her own way, hence the reason why the floor would be bare. In the second stanza to me the mother is telling the son to never give up the fight in life's journey no matter how hard it may be because although her life was not laid out for her like a carpet she has not giving up. Up until this day she is still "... For I’se still goin’,honey,

I’se still climbin’,

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair."