Maya Angelou

[FAH1223]

to a legendary poet, writer and activist

[Thuganomics]

Is she dead

[FAH1223]

Is she dead

Yeah, passed away today. Was 86 years old.

[NoThatAbdi]

Wow how strange, I was listening to one of her poems on youtube just last week!

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 back yard.

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.

[Thuganomics]

She was a great fighter for her people

[MujahidAishah]

Love her poems

[The`Republic]

RIP Maya. The poem she read on Bill Clinton's first inauguration is one of my favorite poems

[Basra-]

Finally, the Old raggedy has past. Gosh, she used to irritate me with her dumb, unintelligent so called poetry. I hope Oprah is next.

[Aristocat]

[LeJusticier]

Maya Angelou 1928-2014 Thank You for the Wisdom.
1. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
2. “The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.”
3. “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.”
4. “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
5. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. Try to be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud. Do not complain. Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution."
6. “I do not trust people who don’t love themselves and yet tell me, ‘I love you.’ There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.”
7. “If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?”
8. “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour, and some style.”
9. “Have enough courage to trust love one more time.”
10. “To those who have given up on love: I say, “Trust life a little bit.”
11. “Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!”
12. “Love life. Engage in it. Give it all you’ve got. Love it with a passion because life truly does give back, many times over, what you put into it.”
13. “You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.”
14. “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”
15. “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!”
16. “Most people don’t grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honour their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity. What that is, is aging.”
17. “Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.”
18. “I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.”
19. “There were people who went to sleep last night, poor and rich and white and black, but they will never wake again. And those dead folks would give anything at all for just five minutes of this weather or ten minutes of ploughing. So you watch yourself about complaining. What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.”
20. “If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.”
21. “I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as ‘making a life’.”
22. “Nothing will work unless you do.”
23. “All great achievements require time.”
24. “It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.
25. “We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives.”
26. “Each of us, famous or infamous, is a role model for somebody, and if we aren’t, we should behave as though we are — cheerful, kind, loving, courteous. Because you can be sure someone is watching and taking deliberate and diligent notes.”