Maya Angelou
”There is a kind of strength that is almost frightening in black women. It’s as if a steel rod runs right through the head down to the feet.”
— Maya Angelou, interview broadcast, Nov. 21, 1973.
“A Conversation with Maya Angelou,”
Conversations with Maya Angelou (1989).
“Touched by an Angel”
Maya Angelou
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.
We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love’s light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
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“Two Lengths has every Day”
Emily Dickinson
Two Lengths has every Day —
Its absolute extent
And Area superior
By Hope or Horror lent —
Eternity will be
Velocity or Pause
At Fundamental Signals
From Fundamental Laws.
To die is not to go —
On Doom’s consummate Chart
No Territory new is staked —
Remain thou as thou art.
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