MAYA ANGELOU - in memory

" A Tall Black lady smiling..."

--from a letter to her Arkansas family apologizing for the missed appearance at the Fayetteville Public Library due to an 'unexpected ailment...' (J. Roberts, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, May 29, 2014)

In Memory

 

            Excerpts from her book/poem, "Amazing Peace" which I purchased in the Garland County (AR)Library's Used Book Room for fifty-cents in July, 2013.

           "Amazing Peace" [Random House] was read by the poet at the lighting of the National Christmas Tree, Washington, D. C. December 1 2005.

          

Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes

And lightning rattles the eaves of our houses.

Floodwaters await in our avenues. . .

 

We question ourselves. What have we done to

    so affront nature?

We interrogate and worry God.

Are you there? Are you there, really?

Does the covenant you made with us still hold? . . .

 

Hope is born again in the faces of children.

It rides on the shoulders of our aged as they

   walk into their sunsets.

Hope spreads around the earth, brightening

   all things,

Even hate, which crouches breeding in

  dark corridors.

 

In our joy, we think we hear a whisper.

At first it is too soft. Then only half heard.

We listen carefully as it gathers strength.

We hear a sweetness.

The word is Peace.

It is loud now.

Louder than the explosion of bombs.

 

We tremble at the sound. We are thrilled by

   its presence.

It is what we have hungered for.

Not just the absence of war. But true Peace.

A harmony of spirit, a comfort of courtesies.

Security for our beloveds and their beloveds. . .

 

We, Angels and Mortals, Believers and

   Nonbelievers,

Look heavenward and speak the word aloud.

Peace. We look at our world and speak the

   word aloud.

Peace. We look at each other, then into

   ourselves,

And we say without shyness or apology

   or hesitation:

 

                            Peace, My Brother.

                              Peace, My Sister.

                                Peace, My Soul.

~~