Poetry Corner

An April Day

By Joseph Seamon Cotter Jr.

On such a day as this I think,

On such as day as this,

When earth and sky and nature’s whole

Are clad in April’s bliss;

And balmy zephyrs gently waft

Upon your cheek a kiss;

Sufficient is it just to live

On such a day as this.

This poem is in the public domain.

About the poet: Joseph Seamon Cotter Jr. was born on September 2, 1895, in Louisville, Kentucky. He graduated from Central High School in Louisville in 1911. His father, Joseph Seamon Cotter Sr., a noted African-American playwright, was the principal when his son graduated.

Cotter Jr. attended Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, before contracting tuberculosis. After falling ill, he returned to Louisville and began work as a journalist for the Leader. He was said by many to have had the potential to be the greatest poet of his generation.

Joseph Seamon Cotter Jr. died on February 3, 1919, from tuberculosis.