R.I.P. Maya Angelou

We are losing some giants this year. Here’s to the people who changed (and are changing) the world with their beautiful souls and beautiful words.

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From “Phenomenal Woman“:Maya-Angelou1

It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Amiri Baraka and Maya Angelou dance at the The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York.

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From “A Brave and Startling Truth“:

When we come to it
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace
We, this people on this mote of matter
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor
And the body is quieted into awe

 

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