In Honor of MLK Jr. Day, A Tribute to Maya Angelou

I was recently pondering the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. because of the upcoming holiday. I thought about how sad it is that many Americans don't make the effort to consider these national days of tribute. Most only care that they get a day off to couch themselves and fondle the remote control. I should know, I'm one of them.

However, this year, I'm trying to change my tune. In honor of MLK Jr. (and the upcoming month of February-- Black History Month) who peacefully fought for the African American right to pursue the American Dream free of prejudice, I've decided to pay tribute to one of the Black community's shining stars, Maya Angelou.

In high school we were assigned a couple of Angelou's non-fiction novels in English class which was my first introduction to this prolific poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiographical portrait of her childhood, Angelou writes with such sensual, evocative, poetic imagery that a couple of her descriptions I vividly remember to this day. In my first recollection, Angelou describes a tooth that had been pulled and what the hole in her gum felt like afterward. She likens the gum cavity to a pie-crust, swollen with a dark, gelatinous pie filling that coagulates and teases the edges of the reservoir. In the second, she depicts an elegant, elderly, light-skinned, Black lady in her neighborhood who had skin so soft and delicate, it could snag like the skin of an over-ripe plum. My paraphrases do not do Angelou's writing justice so please read the book. I just can't express in words how her language is able to turn letters into senses that you can smell, taste and touch.

Maya Angelou is truly an American living legend and I'm certain that, in the future, her legacy will be thought of with the same reverence as literary giants of yesteryear such as Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, Ernest Hemingway, T.S. Elliot and Sylvia Plath.

On this Monday, January 15th, try to remember the spirit of MLK Jr.'s message (that speaks to all humanity regardless of race) as is echoed in the following poem by Ms. Maya Angelou:

Still I Rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

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.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise
I rise
I rise

~ Maya Angelou
(courtesy of Poemhunter.com)