Legendary author Maya Angelou dies

[cherrypye]

so very true!

I love that quote, but used in that image and for that purpose, it brought tears to my eyes.

Rest in Power, Ms. Angelou.

[maryk]

She will be missed, her words will most definitely live on.

[*DIVA!]

Wow - her tweet from 5 days ago.

Maya Angelou‏@DrMayaAngelou·May 23 ·
Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.

A few of her other tweets:

Maya Angelou‏@DrMayaAngelou·Apr 29 ·
I have a certain way of being in this world, and I shall not, I shall not be moved.


Maya Angelou‏@DrMayaAngelou·Apr 18 ·
The idea of overcoming is always fascinating to me, because few of us realize how much energy we have expended just to be here today.

Maya Angelou‏@DrMayaAngelou·Apr 16
Be agile and willing, but if one is being asked to contradict, you must remember there is different in manner, but not different in meaning.

Maya Angelou‏@DrMayaAngelou·Apr 16
I agreed a long time ago, I would not live at any cost. If I am moved or forced away from what I think is the right thing, I will not do it.

Maya Angelou‏@DrMayaAngelou·Mar 10 ·
The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.

i read her last tweet earlier and said..she knew she was transitioning.

[dougie]

And Still I Rise - YouTube




Still I Rise

Maya Angelou, 1928 - 2014

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

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 wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

From And Still I Rise, Maya Angelou's third volume of poetry published by Random House in 1978.

http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/still-i-rise

[MsDark]

RIP

Yeah, my first thought: Oprah gonna be all up on this.

[tulip]

RIP. Remarkable poet.

[*DIVA!]

If you didn't get anything else from her poems.. You gained some self esteem

[Lalasnake]

I somehow grew up without much exposure to Maya Angelou and can't help feeling that I missed out on a heck of a lot. Reading her obituary, she was a fascinating woman with so many hardships and accomplishments. Reading these poems, I can't help but hear Nina Simone singing them. Maya Angelou wrote a piece about her in Redbook, but I don't know whether they ever did any musical projects projects together. I think they would have made fantastic partners in poetry and song.

[witchcurlgirl]

RIP. I hate that her image is connected to orca in any way. I was a little girl when I first saw the TV movie of Caged Bird, and was so moved by it. Afterward I read the book over and over.

She was a giant long before orca latched on to her greatness.


** lmao at my auto correct offering orca as an option for Oprah. I'm leaving it there for shits and giggles.

[*DIVA!]

I laughed thinking it was intentional before I read about the autocorrect

[sluce]

LOL I thought it was intentional too.

[nwgirl]

I wish we had studied her work in school (HS is about my farthest) but the one quote I have taken solace in many times in the recent years has been "The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them". RIP based on that quote alone. That advice helped me through more times in my life than almost anything else I've heard or read.

[Stereo Inferno]

She's been my favourite poet since I began my poetry obsession in my teens. Along with W H Auden and an Arab guy whose name escapes me. I loved her in How to Make an American Quilt and also in Poetic Justice. (Which is worth revisiting, because her poems are narrated by Janet Jackson, throughout the film.)

Phenomenal Woman is also my favourite poem by Dr Angelou. I had considered a tattoo of part of it, on my back, but I think I'll go ahead with it now..

This part: -

It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

RIP Dr Maya Angelou, and thank you.

[Mel1973]

If you didn't get anything else from her poems.. You gained some self esteem

Amen!

She's been my favourite poet since I began my poetry obsession in my teens. Along with W H Auden and an Arab guy whose name escapes me. I loved her in How to Make an American Quilt and also in Poetic Justice. (Which is worth revisiting, because her poems are narrated by Janet Jackson, throughout the film.)

Phenomenal Woman is also my favourite poem by Dr Angelou. I had considered a tattoo of part of it, on my back, but I think I'll go ahead with it now..

This part: -

It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

RIP Dr Maya Angelou, and thank you.

How funny, I was just thinking the same thing. My next tat should be a Maya verse. She is so inspiring - even in her death, there is inspiration and beauty.

[Stereo Inferno]

Do it, Mel! We'll compare in due course.