Still I Rise (Maya Angelou)

Still on a Maya Angelou kick. Love her. Her only other poem on poets.org is Still I Rise.

I would love to hear it spoken. It just seems like it was made for spoken word. I guess I didn't have a strong reaction to the poem, a nodding of the head - yeah, that's it - because I've never felt downtrodden. Yeah, yeah, I'm not a White male, so I'm not quite at the top of the heap, but being White, I am close. So, while I like the poem, I don't quite feel it.

But, you know, being a woman I sure do respond to this line:

Favorite line: "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?"

Alone (Maya Angelou)

I'm currently reading I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and am loving it, so I searched for a poem of hers and found this one.

It's a poem sure, but my more immediate connection with it went something like, 'mmmhmm, hey! it's a song!'. It's so incredibly musical. It has a chorus: "That nobody,/But nobody/Can make it out here alone." It has changes in meter and rhythm which signify changes in verse and even isolates a bridge: "Now if you listen closely/I'll tell you what I know...."

It's pretty groovy stuff.

Favorite line: "Lying, thinking/Last night"