FALL IN LOVE WITH A POEM TODAY!



"There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money either." ~
Robert Graves



Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Farewell, Maya Angelou

I remember tearing up as she delivered "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Clinton's inauguration.  Ordered the audio tape and listened to it many times.  She was the second poet in history to be invited to write a poem for an inauguration. 

I liked her poems; I liked her prose.  I loved her strength, her courage and the dazzling, luminous spirit  she wore as comfortably as a well-worn pair of slippers. She was at home in herSelf.  And she was at home in Winston Salem when she died today at 86. 

Tributes will be written, her life revisited.  She deserves all the glory she will be given—and then some.  For now I will just say it's hard to believe she has left this world, and I'm sad.  Not for her.  I imagine she was okay with the transition.  And I have little doubt there's one fine welcoming celebration going on in the Hereafter.  I'm sad most of all for the turbulent world which was a little better because she was in it. 

Of so many favorite Angelou quotes, I this one keeps taking over the space in my head today:  "The first time someone lets you see who they really are, believe them."  Great advice.   

May you rest in peace, dear Maya Angelou.  That "little light" of yours was never little, m'am.  May it shine on through your generous work.  And may we continue to be inspired by the Light of your spirit.