Read Maya Angelou's Poems:
The Rock Cries Out to Us Today - Poem By Maya Angelou
A Rock, A River, A Tree Hosts to species long since departed, Mark the mastodon. The dinosaur, who left dry tokens Of their sojourn here...
The Mothering Blackness - Poem By Maya Angelou
She came home running back to the mothering blackness deep in the smothering blackness white tears icicle gold plains of her face She ca...
Alone - Poem By Maya Angelou
Lying, thinking Last night How to find my soul a home Where water is not thirsty And bread loaf is not stone I came up with one thing ...
Touched by an Angel - Poem By Maya Angelou
We, unaccustomed to courage exiles from delight live coiled in shells of loneliness until love leaves its high holy temple and comes int...
Refusal - Poem By Maya Angelou
Beloved, In what other lives or lands Have I known your lips Your Hands Your Laughter brave Irreverent. Those sweet excesses that I d...
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - Poem By Maya Angelou
The free bird leaps on the back of the win and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wings in the orange sun rays and d...
Remembrance - Poem By Maya Angelou
Your hands easy weight, teasing the bees hived in my hair, your smile at the slope of my cheek. On the occasion, you press above me, gl...
Million Man March Poem - Poem By Maya Angelou
The night has been long, The wound has been deep, The pit has been dark, And the walls have been steep. Under a dead blue sky on a dista...
Momma Welfare Roll - Poem By Maya Angelou
Her arms semaphore fat triangles, Pudgy hands bunched on layered hips Where bones idle under years of fatback And lima beans. Her jowls ...
Still I Rise - Poem By Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may tread me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise. ...
Phenomenal Woman - Poem By Maya Angelou
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size But when I start to tell them, The...
Kin - Poem By Maya Angelou
FOR BAILEY We were entwined in red rings Of blood and loneliness before The first snows fell Before muddy rivers seeded clouds Above a...
On the Pulse of Morning - Poem 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 ...
A Brave and Startling Truth - Poem By Maya Angelou
We, this people, on a small and lonely planet Traveling through casual space Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns To a de...
The Lesson - Poem By Maya Angelou
I keep on dying again. Veins collapse, opening like the Small fists of sleeping Children. Memory of old tombs, Rotting flesh and worms ...
California Prodigal - Poem By Maya Angelou
FOR DAVID P—B The eye follows, the land Slips upward, creases down, forms The gentle buttocks of a young Giant. In the nestle, Old ado...
They Went Home - Poem By Maya Angelou
They went home and told their wives, that never once in all their lives, had they known a girl like me, But... They went home. They said...
Insomniac - Poem By Maya Angelou
There are some nights when sleep plays coy, aloof and disdainful. And all the wiles that I employ to win its service to my side are us...
Woman Work - Poem By Maya Angelou
I've got the children to tend The clothes to mend The floor to mop The food to shop Then the chicken to fry The baby to dry I got ...
The Detached - Poem By Maya Angelou
We die, Welcoming Bluebeards to our darkening closets, Stranglers to our outstretched necks, Stranglers, who neither care nor care to kn...
Awaking in New York - Poem By Maya Angelou
Curtains forcing their will against the wind, children sleep, exchanging dreams with seraphim. The city drags itself awake on subway s...
Weekend Glory - Poem By Maya Angelou
Some clichty folks don't know the facts, posin' and preenin' and puttin' on acts, stretchin' their backs. They move...
A Plagued Journey - Poem By Maya Angelou
There is no warning rattle at the door nor heavy feet to stomp the foyer boards. Safe in the dark prison, I know that light slides over ...
When You Come - Poem By Maya Angelou
When you come to me, unbidden, Beckoning me To long-ago rooms, Where memories lie. Offering me, as to a child, an attic, Gatherings of ...
Passing Time - Poem By Maya Angelou
Your skin like dawn Mine like musk One paints the beginning of a certain end. The other, the end of a sure beginning. Maya Angelou ...
Men - Poem By Maya Angelou
When I was young, I used to Watch behind the curtains As men walked up and down the street. Wino men, old men. Young men sharp as mustard...
A Conceit - Poem By Maya Angelou
Give me your hand Make room for me to lead and follow you beyond this rage of poetry. Let others have the privacy of touching words ...