Missing Maya~ Poem Piece from: On the Pulse of Morning

from On the Pulse of Morning

By Maya Angelou

A Rock, A River, A Tree

Hosts to species long since departed,   

Marked the mastodon,

The dinosaur, who left dried tokens   

Of their sojourn here

On our planet floor,

Any broad alarm of their hastening doom   

Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.

But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,   

Come, you may stand upon my

Back and face your distant destiny,

But seek no haven in my shadow,

I will give you no hiding place down here.

You, created only a little lower than

The angels, have crouched too long in   

The bruising darkness

Have lain too long

Facedown in ignorance,

Your mouths spilling words

Armed for slaughter.

The Rock cries out to us today,   

You may stand upon me,   

But do not hide your face.

[…]

Maya Angelou, “On the Pulse of Morning” (excerpt) from On the Pulse of Morning. Copyright © 1993 by Maya Angelou. [from PoetryFoundation website: “Used by permission of Random House Audio Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.”]
Source: The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (Random House Inc., 1994)

If there is one thing that Maya Angelou’s poetry says to me, it is ‘Be brave. Summon your courage and keep it close. Always.’  Her words and poems paint worlds so so real, so honest- it hurts.  Like the movement of eras in the piece above, I often feel emotions on so many levels when I read her work. But her courage always has the last word- on the page, in my heart, and with a voice that says ‘child, if it can’t be real, don’t bother.”  Thank you Ms. Maya Angelou, for all the fire, courage, and bravery in your poetry and life’s work. We will miss you.