The great poet Maya Angelou passes

by designs 23 Replies latest social current

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  designs

  Her life embodied how the human spirit can rise from crushing conditions to mentor, role model and teacher.

  She went mute for 5 years after being raped at the age of 9. In that time she found her inner spirit to write and speak for others.

  Her life course went from working in Brothels to teaching in Universites. From broken home to addressing the nation at William Clinton's Inaugeration.

  Her poems touched millions of lives. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings; On The Pulse Of Morning; A Brave And Startling Truth:

  We, this people, on a small and lonely planet

  Traveling through this casual space

  Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns

  To a destination where all signs tell us

  It is possible and imperative that we learn

  A brave and startling truth
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  Laika

  Oh, what a shame. :( She was wonderful.
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  designs

  The caged bird sings

  with a fearful trill

  of things unknown

  but longed for still

  and his tune his heard

  on a distant hill

  for the caged bird

  sings of freedom
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  Wasanelder Once

  I'm sorry she is gone, but I never liked her work or the reverence she was given. She exuded a certain snobbery in her manner which belied her nature. Without her backstory I would never have guessed her roots. I think her manner turned some people off. I like poetry that is both meaningful and witty at times, not simply dark and brooding. To each their own.
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  jgnat

  This quote from Maya Angelou affected me deeply, and helped me understand people better.

  “The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them.”
  ― Maya Angelou
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  confusedandalone

  jgnat, I remember that as well... I did appreciate alot of her work as well.

  I had an english teacher who literally force fed us alot of her material in High School. She will be missed
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  designs

  Out of the huts of history's shame

  I rise

  up from a past that's rooted in pain

  I rise

  I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide

  welling and swelling I bear in the tide

  leaving behind nights of terror and fear

  I rise

  into a daybreak that's wonderously clear

  I rise
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  designs

  We, unaccustomed to courage

  exiled from delight

  live coiled in shells of loneliness

  until love leaves its high holy temple

  and comes into our sight

  to liberate us into life
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  Gregor

  Someone decided she was a genius poet. The herd followed.

  Pretentious drivel.
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  designs

  Pretentious no, a person who became very strong and rose above her tragedies and the times yes.

  Her bond with author and social observer James Baldwin was very powerful.