With His head in His hands,
God thought and thought,
Till He thought: I’ll make me a man!

These lines come from James Weldon Johnson’s poem “The Creation,” one of the sermon-poems in his collection The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922). Johnson—poet, diplomat, and a leading figure of the NAACP and the Harlem Renaissance—crafted the piece as a literary rendering of African American folk preaching. “The Creation” dramatizes Genesis in the cadences, repetitions, and vivid physical imagery of a Black church sermon, presenting God as an artisan who pauses to ponder before shaping humanity. The quoted moment occurs as the poem turns from the making of the world to the climactic act of creating man.

The passage humanizes the divine act of creation: God is pictured in a posture of intense contemplation, “head in His hands,” before deciding to “make…a man.” The repetition (“thought and thought”) mimics oral sermon rhythm and builds suspense, emphasizing deliberation rather than instantaneous command. Johnson’s phrasing also elevates humanity as the culminating work—something requiring special care and imagination. In the broader poem, this intimate, tactile portrayal of God aligns with the folk-sermon tradition, making sacred history immediate and emotionally accessible while affirming human dignity through the idea that humankind is fashioned with particular intention.