Maya Angelou

 

Words of hopefulness

after years of her silence

backed by sassiness.

(Photo by mayaangelou.com)

"Prejudice is a burden that confused the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible."

~Maya Angelou

A famous quote to ponder is still appropriate for our times today.

She was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. Her portfolio includes:

7 autobiographies

3 books of essays

Over 18 poetry books

Credited in plays, movies, and tv shows (50 years)

Her popular poems include "Still I Rise" and "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" along with the one cited below. She was the second poet to recite a poem at an inaugural address. Her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" took stage at Bill Clinton's first inaugural address in the year of 1993.

On the Pulse of Morning

BY MAYA ANGELOU

A Rock, A River, A Tree

Hosts to species long since departed,   

Marked the mastodon,

The dinosaur, who left dried tokens   

Of their sojourn here

On our planet floor,

Any broad alarm of their hastening doom   

Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.

But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,   

Come, you may stand upon my

Back and face your distant destiny,

But seek no haven in my shadow,

I will give you no hiding place down here.

You, created only a little lower than

The angels, have crouched too long in   

The bruising darkness

Have lain too long

Facedown in ignorance,

Your mouths spilling words

Armed for slaughter.

The Rock cries out to us today,   

You may stand upon me,   

But do not hide your face.

This poem was cited from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48990/on-the-pulse-of-morning which also came from her book published in 1994, "The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou".